Power Goes Out Thursday Morning in Orono Schools, Prompts Early Dismissal

Update from Orono Superintendent (March 21 at 5:30 p.m.):

Our sincere appreciation to all of our families and staff members for their patience and cooperation today with the power outage. It was a perfect example of how, when everyone works together, a difficult situation can go smoothly.

Here is an update on what happened. Work by Xcel Energy at County Road 6 and Highway 12 caused a power outage, which subsequently caused our equipment to fail.  The affected equipment controls different things in different buildings.

Xcel’s estimate of a half hour to restore power was correct. However, that is when we learned the outage created a new problem "on our end.” It was our hope that repairs could be accomplished quickly and the remainder of the school day completed as normal. When it became apparent that repairs would take longer, and our buildings would still be without telephone service and heat, we made the decision to dismiss students early.

Repair work is continuing as this message is being sent. You will be contacted again if we encounter further problems.

Again, thank you for your patience and cooperation today.

Update (March 21 at 1 p.m.): 

Orono Schools will dismiss student early today, Thursday, March 21. There are ongoing issues without having full power, such as lack of heat in some buildings and no telephone service in all buildings.

Orono High School and Orono Middle Schools students will be dismissed at 1:30 p.m.

Orono Intermediate School and Orono Schumann Elementary students will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m.

Elementary students who attend OK Kids after school will go immediately there.

All evening activities are cancelled.

Bus drivers have been instructed to check with students to ensure that someone is home or that they have access to their home.  If they do not, they will be returned to the schools.

Elementary and middle school parents can also e-mail their school secretaries to let us know if their students do not have access to their homes.

Those e-mail addresses are:

Orono Schumann Elementary –mhoskins@orono.k12.mn.us

Orono Intermediate School – ssparks@orono.k12.mn.us

Orono Middle School – lkrebsbach@orono.k12.mn.us

The District Office and the schools do not have telephone service.

More from the Orono School District:

Today Orono Schools experienced a power outage about 10:50 a.m. at Orono High School, Orono Intermediate School Schumann Elementary, District Office, Discovery Center and OK Kids.

Orono Middle School has a different power company and was not effected. However, their phones, as well as all phones in the district are out. Partial power has been restored as of 11:30 a.m.

All students are safe and have access to restrooms and will be served lunch. Students will complete the school day unless you are notified otherwise.