Schools

Soquel Principal Addresses Last Week's Power Outage

High winds threatened to closed Soquel High last week.

In this week's edition of Knight's Notes, the newsletter, Principal Ken Lawrence-Emanuel addressed the parents and students in regards to the power outages that threatened to close the school last week.

Some students were under the impression that they were owed time off after a certain threshold without power. That imaginary threshold was reached when high winds sans electricity. Read Lawrence-Emanuel's words in full below.

Thanks to everyone who kept focus during the windy weather and power outage Thursday morning!

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We lost power at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and regained it at 11:30 Thursday morning. When it came time to start school on Thursday morning, I consulted with our Superintendent, Gary Bloom, and we decided to open school as normal, even in the absence of power. We reasoned that since the majority of our classrooms had sufficient natural light, since we had water and operational bathrooms, since we could maintain effective communications via cell phones, and since the weather was dry and not too cold, we could operate school so closely to normal that we could not justify depriving students of a day of education.

Many students asked me about an urban myth that is floating around; actually, there is no rule or law that says a school must liberate their students after two hours without power. Our district's Emergency Response Protocol requires that we, the superintendent and I, consider closure in the event of a power outage only if the outage is more than 2 hours, and only if lighting, heating, and other conditions make instruction impossible. Clearly, on a bright, relatively mild day like last Thursday, instruction was possible. With a few minor adjustments, we established conditions that allowed the school day to progress. The office and security staff pitched in to monitor the halls and buildings, to visit all classrooms frequently, and to move classes from rooms that had insufficient light, in the 300 building for example, to brighter rooms in the 100 and 200 buildings. Although teachers could not operate their document cameras or projectors, they did demonstrate that education predates electricity by carrying on anyway!

Find out what's happening in Capitola-Soquelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Another reason for keeping school open, even without electricity, stems from the huge job it would be to get everyone safely home. If we were to close school after it had opened for the day, we would need to contact all parents to let them know that school was closing, and then hold all students until they could be released to a parent or a person listed on the student's emergency card. We could not just turn everyone loose! You can imagine why a mid-day school closure is only to be considered when absolutely necessary.

Again, my thanks to the staff and students who took this upheaval in stride, and demonstrated that learning is the first order of business at Soquel High!

Ken Lawrence-Emanuel, Principal


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