Dear SAP School Families,
Today at 2:58pm, right before dismissal, the power went out at school. Then it came on a few seconds later. During carline at 3pm dismissal, it went out again for a few minutes, then it came back on. Then around 3:25pm, the power went out for about an hour. It didn’t come on again until 4:30pm.
The folks at Southern CA Edison were fixing some equipment on Berendo St at the entrance of our school parking lot. The preschool’s power was not affected, but our school had no electricity for an hour. With no power, there may be some issues with the plumbing, as toilets have pumps that are connected to our power source. The air conditioners also were not working temporarily, due to the outage, but our children in daycare kept cool indoors, as it was out of the direct heat and sunlight. Many continued on doing their homework.
Those students in daycare did not have power for an hour. Having no power meant that some phones on campus were not working, but some landlines were. Teachers in daycare were able to start calling parents on landlines to notify them of the outage via phone numbers on emergency cards The internet was down, and there lights were not on in the classrooms, so we could not send out an email blast right away.
We do have some emergency light plug-ins, flashlights, and lanterns in every classroom on campus if needed, along with our emergency kits and safety first aid kit bags. The lights and power (and yes, AC) all came back on by 4:30pm.
In times like these, we need to be able to reach you quickly. Those in daycare who had mobile phones and had reception were given permission (with myself and the daycare teachers present) to call or text parents to let them know of the situation. I was unable to send an email blast due to the internet being down, which is why I am able to type this message only now.
In the next day or so, before our parent meeting on 9/5, we will send out a code to give all families on Remind.com (it’s also an app you can download on your phone) so that we can reach all of you quickly in case of an emergency via text.,
We are grateful that everyone is safe and the lights are back on, but in the event of a longer blackout during the school day, school may need to end early, and you may be called to pick up your children.
Thankfully, the rolling blackouts are done, and power is restored, but if this happened for long periods of time during the school day, we would notify you as soon as we could and you could pick up your children if the weather was too hot and there was no electricity.
Our intent is to keep everyone safe and secure here for as long as possible, without having to call you early from work. Thank you for your turning in your emergency cards to the office so that we can always reach you when we need to. We are happy to report everyone is safe and the kids and teachers are all fine.
God bless,
Mrs. Grey
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