Last item for navigation
Message from the Superintendent: Weather-related facilities challenges addressed, Dec. 2022
Posted on 12/29/2022
Photo of RCPS Superintendent Dr. Terry OattsDecember 29, 2022

Greetings RCPS Staff, Students, and Families,

I trust that you have enjoyed the semester and holiday break as we return for the second semester of the 2022-23 School Year. As you know, our state and region saw some of the coldest and most frigid temperatures in a decade resulting in as low as single-digit temperatures prior to and during the week of Christmas. Consequently, many counties reported significant facilities challenges related to burst water pipes and other issues.

I want to share that our Operations Division was both proactive and responsive to any facilities-related challenges experienced by RCPS. We had operations personnel scheduled to work during the week immediately following Christmas for purposes of executing maintenance and monitoring of our facilities. Such a schedule enabled RCPS to rapidly respond to any severe winter weather-related challenges at our school facilities.

Thanks to the prompt communication to me by one of our high school principals of some isolated flooding within one of our schools, we were able to rapidly respond to mitigate any further adverse impact of this flooding. I commend our custodial personnel for their work ethic in immediately attending to the impacted areas. I also commend our Operations and Financial Services Divisions for working closely with me to ensure that the necessary resources were promptly deployed to address any facilities challenges.

Let me be clear. The severe winter weather marginally impacted some of our facilities, but our Operations Division was able to effectively address these facilities issues such that there will be no significant disruption to normal school operations when staff and students return from the semester break. There will be some noticeable in-progress maintenance activity at some impacted schools, but this maintenance activity will be minimal during the school day.

Again, I commend our entire Operations Division for working closely with the Office of Superintendent to ensure that our facilities challenges were promptly addressed and largely resolved as we prepare to welcome our staff and students back for second semester and the new Year!