Robo wake-up call
Updated: Jan. 20
The call came in at 6:10 a.m. from District 58. Due to extremely cold weather, schools would be closed. That was all I needed to hear at that early hour and I gently returned the receiver to the cradle.
But apparently there’d been a mistake. A second robocall 15 minutes later informed me that school would resume Tuesday, not Monday — the Martin Luther King holiday — as the previous call had indicated. That was the part of the message I had missed in my haste to return to dreamland.
There was no call from District 99, which I ascribed to the fact that finals conclude today. So I eventually pried myself out of a very warm and inviting bed to don heavy layers, start the car and, alas, scratch ice off of the windshield.
Arriving at North, red flags flapped in the sub-zero breeze. No traffic. No students. I dropped off my son and dialed the school to confirm that it was in session.
Didn’t I receive the call? School was postponed for two hours.
So I collected my son and headed home to call the district office, where the superintendent’s secretary apologized profusely for the missed call. Checking the list, our name was nowhere to be seen. She would see that it was added.
The good news was that I was able to reach the D99 central office at all, I suppose. But sure enough, staff members were at their desks by 8 a.m. as usual.
Not so over at D58. II was unable to reach an operator at the district office, although several personnel, including Interim Supt. Paul Zaander and the board secretary, were in the office as usual.
I was out early Thursday morning clearing the last of the previous evening’s snow off the sidewalk and chiseling away at the glacier at the end of the driveway (I see Mr Snow Plow has visited). Periodically I would look up and watch the DG North students walking in packs toward school, amazing. It looked like the Cheetah Girls tour bus broke down while on tour in Siberia and the back up singers had to walk the last 1/2 mile to the stadium. Tiny denim skirts right off the sale rack at Abercrombie and Fitch paired with cheap plastic bracelets that clacked as the girls shivered up the walk, pink hoodies strategically unzipped to flash glimpses of boob, no hats, no gloves. They tried desperately to look desirable but only looked -sad.
All I could think as they walked by is ‘Where is your Mother…’
The call from D 99 came last night (Thurs.) about 8 pm. We checked the District 99 website this am to confirm. It was updated and had the same info as the robocall from last night.
http://www.csd99.k12.il.us/