Rocky View Schools were in session Sept. 6, however, Bearspaw School was closed because of a power outage.
Teachers working in the school Sept. 5 called principal Dorothy Dyer to let her know the power had gone out.
Shortly after, a crew of maintenance staff came in and worked through the night in an attempt to open the school the next day.
They were unsuccessful as the part they needed wasn’t available.
By 4 a.m., the decision was made to cancel school.
“It couldn’t even hold 33 amps anymore,” said Angela Spanier, RVS’ director of communications.
“It just went down and was the result of lack of insufficient IMR (Infrastructure, Maintenance and Renewal) grant funding and maintenance.”
The cost of replacing the part has already reached $25,000 and may go higher, according to Spanier.
The entire electrical board was replaced and school was in session Sept. 7.
Dyer said speedy communication allowed most parents to be aware of the outage before transporting their students to school.
“Parents with their Blackberrys and iPhones were just sending their messages,” she said.
She, along with the school’s assistant principal Marc Lee, were at the school to let those unaware of the incident know there was no school that day.
About 20 carloads of kids showed up to school.
When they found out, there were “very happy looking kids and very unhappy looking parents,” according to Dyer.
The main problem wasn’t a lack of light, since the school has lots of natural lighting, but water.
An electrical pump powers toilets and sinks and Dyer knew there would be trouble without working plumbing.
“It’s the bathrooms that are the No. 1 issue because we have 570 people in the school,” she said.
“I’ve worked for Rocky View for a long time and I’ve never had anything like this happen,” she said.
