A power outage affected two schools in the Hamilton School District on Monday. Hamilton High School and Willow Springs Learning Center lost power shortly after noon.
At the high school, which has an enrollment of 1,261 students, classes continued. The school is on village water and sewer systems that do not require electricity, and it has emergency generators that provided power for essential functions. A few classes moved to rooms with better lighting so that instruction could continue.
The afternoon kindergarten sessions had not yet arrived at Willow Springs when the outage occurred. Because Willow Springs, which houses the district’s optional half-day kindergarten program for 4-year-olds, does not have back-up generators, the school’s heating and lighting systems and restroom facilities were not operational. When the busses arrived at Willow Springs, school staff arranged to have the approximately 60 students who attended school delivered to Templeton Middle School where they waited in the cafeteria with their classmates and teachers. Parents of each child were contacted and given the option to pick up their children.
Initial estimates from the power company indicated that the schools could be without power for 90 minutes or more. Power was returned in about one hour.