Storm outage damaged high-school food service and pool equipment after generators failed at one campus

District staff reported that a recent storm-related power outage caused operational damage at the high school and interrupted services at one campus.

The district reported an estimated $5,000 in lost food after a high-school freezer failed; staff said they will seek reimbursement and will submit paperwork to the appropriate emergency reimbursement process. The pool facility also sustained damage to a pump and motor, leaving the pool out of service.

Administrators said emergency generators are installed at district schools but one generator at the high school did not automatically start because it received only one phase of a three-phase feed and therefore did not register the outage; staff had to manually engage that generator. Officials said the other schools’ generators engaged normally. The manual intervention occurred while students and staff were on campus; staff said they prioritized student safety and kept students at school until parents could collect them where necessary.

Superintendent-level staff described follow-up steps including a postmortem review of generator logic and procedures, efforts to seek reimbursement for the food loss and steps to review and strengthen campus emergency operations and communications with families. The business manager and facilities staff were asked to detail the generator failure, clarify whether warranty or service coverage applies, and estimate repair timelines and costs.

The committee was told the district will review procedures and consider infrastructure priorities going forward; no capital-appropriation vote was taken at the meeting.