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APS superintendent speaks out about snowstorm

ATLANTA — Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis said in an exclusive interview Sunday afternoon that district officials are accountable for problems parents experienced during Tuesday’s winter storm.

Channel 2’s Rachel Stockman talked to Davis about how the district is preparing for the thousands of students headed back to school for the first time since the storm.

“First, I want to say, of course, we are accountable for the decisions we make and we are profoundly sorry,” Davis said.

Davis’ interview comes days after hundreds of students were left sleeping on gym floors and dozens were stranded on buses overnight after icy conditions paralyzed metro Atlanta.

In hindsight, he said canceling school would have been the right thing to do.

“Looking back on it, is always easy of course, we should not have had school that day,” he said.

Continuing to send children out on buses, as it got later and later in the afternoon – 5, 6 o’clock, when you could see what was going on -- how did that happen?” asked Stockman.

“Well take in consideration, most of these children did not have to go that far. It’s not as if we’re taking the child from the northern part of the city and transporting them to the southern part of the city,” said Davis.

Davis said Tuesday’s circumstances have compelled him to try and put another bus lot in the northern part of the city – currently the lots are south of the city:

“We're going to try to learn the lessons of this situation and we are going to bring together a lot more parties than we have at the past,” Davis said.

Over the weekend, all of the abandoned buses were picked up and schools were restocked.

“The food has been replenished. We should be ready to go. Hopefully our kids will be ready to learn,” Davis said.

District officials, meanwhile, urge parents to update their contact information as there were reports of outdated phone numbers during the winter storm.