HANOVER COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Hanover County Public Schools will be closed on Friday, with some employees to report to work, as the district continues to evaluate the impact of both the winter storm and water service issues the county faced this week.
According to the school district, Hanover County Public Schools will be closed on Friday, Jan. 10, with all 12-month employees to report to work on a regular schedule.
The school district said 17 out of 24 schools utilize Hanover County water service, and that the outage and continued boil water advisory significantly affected its operations since the district relies on the water to provide students and staff with safe food service, drinking water, access to restrooms and more.
While officials said Hanover County residents will start to see water returning to their systems on Thursday, parts of the county are still under a boil water advisory.
“Our team has worked diligently this week to develop plans to both feed our students and provide students with ample bottled water, among other things, in order to reopen our schools during the boil water advisory,” Hanover County Public Schools said in its statement.
While the school district has been able to secure a limited supply of bottled water for the 17 impacted schools and are awaiting these deliveries, the district said the demand for bottled water in Hanover County has been “unprecedented” and it cannot provide every student with ample access to clean drinking water in its schools on Friday.
“In short, while water service has returned, it continues to impact our operations and ability to safely open our schools,” Hanover County Public Schools said.
Additionally, the school district said uncleared and slick secondary roads remain throughout the county, primarily in the far eastern and western portions of the county, such as Beaverdam, Rockville, Montpelier, Black Creek and Old Church.
“While we expect some progress to be made today, temperatures are once again forecasted to be in the teens tonight, limiting the improvement to these roadways,” the school district said. “These secondary roads remain unsafe for our buses, student drivers, and staff.”
