On March 7th, 2018, Southern New Jersey was hit by a Nor'Easter. The storm caused many power outages to occur. At the time of writing this article, residents of Waterford are still without power. Some are even estimated to be restored on March 9th at around 4pm. The effects were devastating. The storm came 4 days after another storm with high winds impacted the region on Friday, March 2nd, 2018, which knocked power out as well.
The Waterford Township School District was closed on the 7th, however Hammonton Schools remained open. Residents of the town were not happy once they learned transportation was not going to be provided for Hammonton High, and Middle School students that live in Waterford Township, leaving parents wondering if their child would be marked with an unexcused absence, or not.
Waterford Township School District via Dr. Harring released a statement over Facebook to address the confused, and angered parents:
"I wanted to sincerely apologize for the lack of communication for our 7-12th grade residents. It has not been Waterford's practice to place a global call to parents in grades 7-12, but that is going to change... Waterford Township School District is going to setup groups based on the bus routes, so in the future this will not happen again... I take full responsibility for the gap in communication. In my previous experience, I have not communicated with the residents of the sending school. Our system will be updated to place Waterford/Hammonton parents in the communication chain."