Lynn schools rebound from power outage

LYNN – A widespread power outage temporarily closed seven city schools and caused confusion among parents and school administrators early Tuesday morning.Residents in West Lynn and the Wyoma Square area lost power shortly before 6 a.m. Tuesday, a problem that affected Classical High School, Breed Middle School, Pickering Middle School and the Callahan, Lincoln-Thompson, Sisson and Sewell-Anderson elementary schools.National Grid spokeswoman Debbie Stone said an underground cable fault at a substation in Salem was to blame for the outage, which affected only the Lynn area. Power was restored shortly before 8 a.m.”We were actually able to restore service rather quickly by switching our customers to different lines,” Stone said. “We are in the process of repairing the problem, but obviously our number one priority is getting service back to our customers as quickly as possible.”Six of the seven affected schools were able to begin class on time, although many students went home for the day and did not return.Only Classical remained closed after the problem was solved, as Superintendent Nicholas Kostan decided that sending students home for the day was the best move given that high school students are old enough to walk home alone. Kostan also said the sheer number of students at Classical, approximately 1,200, would have made it difficult for teachers to keep track of everyone during the power outage.Confused parents were not notified of the power outages via the district’s Connect ED phone system, and began dropping off students at school at the normal start times.”My kids have a snow day,” joked parent Maureen Gilhooley, who has students at the Pickering and Sisson schools. “It was not a big deal, really, everyone was just confused. We didn’t even know the power was out until we got to the school.”Kostan said the timing of the power outage made it difficult to manage, as information on the scope of the problem was not immediately available. He began to learn about schools one-by-one, and said at first it appeared to be an isolated incident affecting one area.”I wasn’t even aware there was a problem until I received a call from (Principal Fred DuPuis) over at Breed around quarter to 7,” Kostan said. “At that time we had no reports from anyone else, and Breed is a school that has problems with power outages so we thought maybe it was just an accident on Walnut Street. When I was principal there that was something that did happen from time to time. So the timing of it was difficult for us because we did not know how widespread it was.”Kostan said by the time he learned of how many schools were affected, it was too late to call off the buses and students had already begun walking to school.Instead of using Connect ED to reach parents that had already left for the day, principals greeted parents outside of the schools and explained the situation.Principals gave parents the option to take their children home or allow them to stay at school until the power returned. Once power was restored, the department sent out a Connect ED message notifying parents that they could return their children to school.”I was standing out front explaining the situation to parents,” said Callahan Principal Ed Turmenne. “The kids who were dropped off were taken into the building, and those that were still with their parents were given the option to go home. The power came back on around 8 a.m., which worked out well for us because that is just about the regular time that we start classes.”