Power Outage at High School Disrupts Classes

Linemen work to restore power to Excelsior Springs High School after a breaker exploded. Photo by S Jason Cole.

Students at Excelsior Springs High School received an impromptu lesson in the Dark Ages when a power outage plunged nearly half of the facility into darkness. At approximately 8:30 AM school officials reported hearing a loud “Bang!” before losing power. When they looked out the front windows they could see a fire burning on one of the utility poles in the parking lot of Barbee Presbyterian Church, just east of the High School. Responders on the scene said the outage was most likely caused by a “blown breaker” and power would be out “for about two hours.”

Update at 5:20pm – Excelsior Springs High School Principal Christen Everett sent an email to High School parents this evening with further information from today –

Good afternoon,

I wanted to send a message out to parents letting you know about some details from today. At about 9:15 AM a power pole across the street off of our property needed addressed by Ameren UE. In order to fix the pole , One of our power sources needed to be turned off. That led to the gym and several classrooms not having any power on the north side of our building. We were able to maintain a fairly normal school day, by rerouting those classrooms to other parts of the building that had power. We were able to have normal passing periods, but did ask teachers to limit travel throughout the hallways during class time in order to maintain a safe environment in all parts of the school.

We issued a hold in place for approximately 5 minutes at the end of third hour before releasing to 4th hour in order to create a schedule of where to reroute those classrooms that were going to be without power (we moved some classrooms to science labs, to empty classrooms where teachers were on planning periods etc).

The power came back on in all parts of the building prior to sixth hour. We appreciate everyone’s flexibility and I am so proud of our students and staff for being able and willing to learn in alternate classroom settings today in order to have as normal of a day as possible. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email or call.

Thank you,
Christen Everett