EUREKA, Mo. – Rockwood School District’s Superintendent, Dr. Curtis Cain, apologized to parents Sunday night for any confusion or frustration they felt over the decisions made in Friday’s inclement weather.

“What I want our community to understand is one, I hear you, and two, when I say we are going to look to make improvements, that’s exactly what we are going to do as a school organization,” Dr. Cain said.

The superintendent said that safety is his number one priority every day and that he understands the frustration of parents.

“We’re human, but I also understand there’s nothing more personal than being a parent,” he said. “Especially in the heat of, or the cold in this case, of it, that’s not exactly what people want to hear. They want to make sure that their child’s okay.”

Laura Roth, a parent in the district, said she didn’t think twice about sending her three boys off to school but got worried as she started to hear thunder. She was impressed with the staff when picking up her sons.

“We saw teachers and counselors pushing cars up the hill,” Roth said. “I think that the burden of keeping all the kids safe or responsibility of keeping all the kids safe, they were taking it really seriously and just trying to keep things organized in a difficult situation.”

Another parent, Sara Simpson, said the decision was very tough.
“I felt like they can’t win one way or another. It’s a lose-lose situation. If they call off school and nothing happens, people get mad because they missed a day of work for nothing,” she said.

Both Roth and Simpson appreciated the transparency of Dr. Cain’s message.

“That really goes a long way in the eyes of the parents to feel like we can trust him and the district going forward.”

Dr. Cain promised improvement for the future.

“We will continue to fine tune our ability to pivot, but we’re going to continue to have that dialogue so that we continue to improve our process so that we are able to meet whatever mother nature has to throw at us.”