I think it’s great that many LCPS parents had a positive experience with the new alert system. I’m not sure, however, that the experience I had is what LCPS intended. Did anyone else have something similar happen?

2:30 – I drove to Hillside ES in Ashburn and picked up my two children who are walkers.

2:40 – My children and I arrived at home.

3:17 – Received Loudoun Schools email – “All Loudoun County Public Schools will delay dismissal 15 to 20 minutes due to the severe weather warning. We will re-evaluate this decision as conditions warrant.”

3:22 – Received Loudoun Schools email – “Loudoun County Public Schools is now dismissing our elementary school students. Expect delays in students coming home because of down limbs in some parts of the county. Because of the late elementary dismissal, middle and high school students will also be delayed in coming home.”

3:22 – 3:42 – I’m not sure of the exact times, but during this approximate time period I received two calls on my cell phone letting me know that LCPS would be delaying dismissal.

3:42 – Received call on my home phone from LCPS. I can’t remember whether it stated that dismissal would be delayed or that they were now dismissing elementary school students.

3:46 – Received Loudoun Alert email – “All Loudoun County Public Schools will be released 15-20 minutes late due to inclement weather.”

4:01 – Received call on my home phone from Eagle Ridge MS in Ashburn letting me know that all after school activities are canceled. I don’t have any children that attend ERMS.

Posted by arpkws (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 6:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I think something must have gone wrong with the messages going out. I have gotten phone messages from the middle and grade school before, as well as from LCPS as a whole, but nothing yesterday. I received an e-mail, but no calls. My neighbor did (after the fact, so it didn't do any good), and her kids are in the same schools. I know they have the right phone numbers, because they've worked before!

Posted by itype68 (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 9:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Come on people it says in the story that the admin building or wherever the system is located had a power outage and they had to reboot the system. I just think it is great that the county added such a system to let people know. It's amazing to think that it is able to send out that many calls in a timely manner. I'm not sure how many phone lines they have available going out to make the calls but it's incredible to think the system made that many calls so quickly.

Posted by jdjohn5 (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 11:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Worked great for us. First alert was via text message. Also worked great this morning to tell us my kids' school was closed because it was without power.

Posted by backinloco (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 12:25 p.m. (Suggest removal)

System worked great for my family; kept my wife and I informed of everything. One teacher even took the time, after the storm had passed, to inform my wife that our kids were fine and another teacher emailed saying how well the kids responded and that the kids new exactly what to do, because of the practice drills. Bravo!! LCPS!!

Posted by sjcadweber (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 12:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

jdjohn5 - Would you be concerned if the district issued a tornado drill and delayed the release of students district wide, but for some reason your child's school let children go home at the regular time? Does it concern you that some children were walking home while at the same time, others, such as those at Newton-Lee in the above picture, were involved in a tornado drill? I applaud LCPS for adding such as system, but I think they need to review the successes and failures of yesterday's implementation.

Posted by arpkws (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 12:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)

System didn't work so well for us. My child rides a special ed bus, and his bus arrived home right as the storm hit at 2:45. His school is only 5 minutes away. The parents for the rest of the elementary school kids from CLES were waiting for the bus to arrive at the same time and there was no bus until 3:40. The parents sat in their cars at the stop through the entire storm. I watched the bus-stop from my home. According to my call id the first phone call didn't come in until 3:26. Saying that the dismissal was delayed and we would be notified when they would release when the weather cleared. The next call came 3:36 repeating the same message. The next call came at 3:47 saying that the elementary kids would be 15 to 30 minutes late. (At this point it was already an hour and the bus had just left the bus stop out front.) The next call I got was at 3:47 from my sons teacher from school that my special ed student attends to see if he got home okay since his bus didnt return to the school. Then at 4:00 I got a call from Eagle Ridge informing no after school activities, and 2 minutes later a message from Eagle Ridge telling me that the school was delaying release due to storm. My email from the LCPS didnt show up until after 5pm.

I know that the storm came up really fast but I felt really bad for those parents that sat outside in their cars the entire storm in order to get their kids off the bus.

This phone alert system has been used several times this school year and it was really helpfull. But this time it was late and the parents at the bus stop definately never got the message.

Posted by tkamjj (anonymous) on June 5, 2008 at 1:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I applaud the LCPS for implimenting a system of any kind to help safe guard the students. No all systems are perfect. But its a start and it will get better. Thank you to whom ever decided to do this. Lets hope it is never a real life emergency. But if it is someone might just save a life with even a system with BUGS.....it will work out.

Posted by Funnyguyva (anonymous) on June 6, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)