Special Messages

Special Messages and Announcements

Visit this page to learn about operational changes by the school division throughout the year due to emergencies, inclement weather, and any delays or school closings. If you receive a call from our School Messenger system in the event of an emergency, we will also "simulcast" information to the following social media services:

You can receive updates posted to these social media services through RSS as well. Feed My Inbox is a free service that delivers RSS feeds to your e-mail account that some parents enjoy using.

Dr. Underwood will report school closings and delays to local media outlets, including:


Frequently Asked Questions about School Messenger


What is School Messenger?

School Messenger is a notification system that, when coupled with our PowerSchool database, will serve students, parents, and staff by automatically calling to give information, either about an emergency situation at our schools, a closing or delay, student attendance, or upcoming events. The automated calls will be used daily for attendance at all of our schools and on an as-needed basis in situations of emergency or reminders from our schools.

I don’t have any children in Goochland County Public Schools so why am I getting these calls?

Likely, your phone number has been accidentally included in our database. To have the number removed from our system, simply call the school that issued the call or call Central Office at 556-5601.

Is there any way to change the number School Messenger calls?

Parents are encouraged to routinely update their information in PowerSchool by calling their child’s school. It’s important that the information on file always be up to date.

What do I do if I have a child in school but don’t want to be called?

At the current time, Goochland County Schools does not allow parents to “opt out.” Each student should have a phone number on file and, particularly in cases of emergency, that number needs to be a working number that can connect parents to school information.

Why is my answering machine recording only half of the system message?

The typical causes of “cutoff messages” include long gaps of silence at the beginning, middle or end of any answering machine or voice mail greeting, recordings that sound as if a live person is answering (e.g. “Hello. <> We’re sorry, but we’re not available to take your call…”), calls that are forwarded to other numbers in a way that causes them to be answered twice, and answering machine greetings that begin very loud and then trail off to become very soft, which causes School Messenger to believe the greeting message has completed and the answering machine is in recording mode.

My Caller ID showed that the school had called but there was no message. Why did this happen?

Non-delivery of messages to answering systems is typically caused by full mailboxes or answering machines, poor cell phone signals, and auto-attendant messages that require user interaction to leave messages.

Are there other reasons why I did not receive a message on my answering machine?

Less common reasons for partial or non-delivery of messages to answering systems: Excessive amounts of background noise, bad connections, dropped calls, and non-standard answering system beeps.

A message was delivered to my phone, I said “hello” and no message played. Why?

School Messenger delivers messages as soon as the phone is answered. However, if School Messenger can’t distinguish between a “real” person or an answering machine, errors can occur. Typically this error is caused by either excessive amounts of background noise or the recipient repeatedly saying “hello.” Typically, most answering machine and voicemail delivery problems are solved by either re-recording your greeting message, ensuring there are no significant pauses anywhere in your recording, re-recording your greeting message using a clear voice and a consistent volume, or by setting your answering device to “pick-up” within 45 seconds.

I have a telemarketer screening device. How will that affect the call?

Typically this isn’t an issue as the school or district’s phone number is passed on to the Caller ID with the notification. Most screening devices block calls sent from “unknown” numbers or anything that is not deemed as an actual phone number. In the event your screening device requires a caller to identify themselves, School Messenger can’t identify itself so the call will be missed.

What if the line is busy or there is no answer?

School Messenger will retry numbers that were busy or unanswered on previous attempts.

Recent Announcements