Superintendent Haim said aging school buildings drove a series of maintenance emergencies over the Thanksgiving break, including a major electrical-panel failure at MacArthur that threatened school operations and a separate water leak at Lawton High.

"We had this conversation today in our leadership meeting and that older buildings cause more maintenance," Haim said, describing the MacArthur problem that required electricians and custodial staff to work over the break to restore safe operations. He said the district was "really worried about having school" until crews resolved the issue.

Haim also reported a water leak at Lawton High and said staff repaired old pipes and were working to ensure the school could remain open. He credited maintenance, electricians and custodians for preventing closures and noted cooks and other staff were doing extra work to keep schools operating.

On school-closure policy, Haim urged families to rely on official district communications for cancellation notices and named Lynn Cortes as the district communications lead. He said the district typically makes late-closure calls rarely and tries to decide the night before. Haim described the district's current use of virtual days for single-site issues and said a "new law" taking effect next year will change aspects of policy; the podcast did not specify the law's text or citation.