Columbia Public School district spokesperson Michelle Baumstark says three Columbia schools were experiencing sporadic power outages Thursday morning due to a winter storm in the area. Baumstark says the outages at New Haven elementary school, Parkade elementary school and West Junior High School started around 9:45am Thursday.
“The city is working on determining the issue and we hope to have power restored to all those buildings here shortly. Because the buildings have partial power they’re still able to serve lunch,” Baumstark said at around 10:15am Thursday.
She says the district does not expect to have to call for early dismissals.
“You know it’s always concerning to do an early dismissal or let kids out early after you’ve started the school day. For a number of reasons, safety being a big issue, you don’t know whether or not there will be a parent at home to greet the child when they arrive there, if they have a key to be able to get into the house. And we certainly don’t want any student standing out in the cold waiting for a parent to arrive to be able to have a safe place to be,” Baumstark said.