A Message from Superintendent Dr. J. Manning Campbell

Haga clic aquí para leer esta información en español.

January 9, 2024

Dear NECSD students, families, faculty, and staff,

I am writing to express my appreciation for your patience with regard to the unpredictable closing and delays that we have experienced this school year. At the forefront of these decisions is always the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. The circumstances we have faced this school year have been unique and difficult to determine. 

We recognize that delays, early dismissals, and school closings have an impact on our families as they navigate the individual needs of their families. As a parent of school-aged children, I know the difficulties of managing a working schedule with that of my children. I appreciate your understanding and patience as these scenarios arise. 

When there is an anticipated weather event, we do our best to make a decision as early as possible, even the night before when we can. If there is uncertainty of how an event will turn out we have to wait until the morning. In either scenario, I am in contact with our facilities and transportation personnel throughout the evening and overnight hours. We are also in constant communication with town and city officials gathering reports on current conditions. This communication happens numerous times throughout the evening and overnight hours. As soon as we can determine that conditions may be unsafe during arrival or dismissal times, we make a decision. Many times there are situations beyond our control where we are unable to open or need to delay even when observations in your immediate area may seem safe. As you know, our district serves approximately 12,000 children from across three primary municipalities, utilizing six different bus companies to transport our children to and from school safely each day, for approximately five hours each morning and again each afternoon. 

At times, there are unanticipated events that we may not know about until an even later time. These can include, but are not limited to road closures, power or water outages, downed wires, received threats, and numerous other scenarios. Once I am made aware of these situations, we quickly decide, if we can open on time, delay, or close for the day. This decision is based upon the safety of the student, staff, and faculty as well as state laws. 

In either of the above scenarios, as soon as a decision is made our communications team is notified, and a message is shared with our community through robocall, email, the district website, and social media within minutes of our decision being made. 

I am grateful for our dedicated employees who often work throughout the night and outside of their traditional work day to provide information to make these decisions and to prepare our buildings and facilities for the safe arrival of our school communities. These employees may go unnoticed because they are working hard when nobody is around to witness it, but their dedication and hard work can be seen throughout our district and they are truly appreciated.

Thank you for your continued patience as we work together to provide a safe learning environment for our entire school community. 

We recently updated our information regarding emergency-related schedule changes. Please click the link to be reminded of the information. 

Emergency Related Information | Delays, Dismissals, Closures

Sincerely,

Dr. J. Manning Campbell
Superintendent of Schools

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!