Quick Take
A prolonged power outage at Aptos High School disrupted classes and led many students to leave early Monday. PG&E confirmed that the school was receiving power and said the issues stemmed from the school's internal equipment.
Some Aptos High School students went home early from school Monday as a power outage left classrooms in the dark and interfered with test-taking and instruction.
Teachers union president Brandon Diniz said several teachers reached out to him over the weekend with concerns about the outage, which Pacific Gas & Electric says began Saturday, and questions about how long it would last. He wasn’t sure what caused the outage and still didn’t know if power had been restored as of Monday afternoon, adding that he was frustrated at the lack of communication from district officials.
“It sounds like they knew that there was no power since Saturday, and they were working to make sure that they had a plan for today,” he said. “And it doesn’t sound like there’s much of a plan today, because they were able to get one generator in only one of the buildings.”
Diniz said a teacher told him that by fourth period, he had just nine students out of a total of 35 left in his class.
“Students were pretty much just leaving and going home and not sticking around,” said Diniz. “So I don’t know what the district is planning.”
Aptos High Principal Lisa Lansdale and the district spokesperson were not immediately available for comment.
However, in an email exchange provided to Lookout between a parent and the district, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras said that the district sent an email Monday morning notifying families of the power outage and that classes would not be canceled.
She added that school is canceled only on rare occasions, which are dictated by the state’s Department of Education and that the outage “was not considered a reason to cancel school.”
Contreras also said in the email that PG&E and school staff attempted to restore power over the weekend and hoped to have it resolved by 6 a.m. Monday.
“When power was not restored, messaging was sent to families and staff at approximately 7:30 a.m. Monday morning,” she wrote.
PVUSD spokesperson Alejandro Chavez told Lookout via email Monday evening that the district and electrical contractors were working on the issue, they still didn’t know when power would be restored and that school will resume Tuesday.
He added that the school will provide cold lunch options if power isn’t restored by lunchtime.
“We are confident that we can maintain a safe learning environment despite the power outage and our staff saw some amazing things today with teachers being flexible, creative, and resilient,” he wrote.
PG&E spokesperson Stephanie Magallon told Lookout that the school was “receiving power” as of Monday and the issue isn’t PG&E-related.
“The reason they don’t have power is whatever equipment issue they’re having at the school,” she said. “Once they’re able to fix that issue, they’ll be automatically online again, because on our end they’re fully connected.”
PG&E was first notified of an issue at the school on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. The utility sent crews to the school that evening, who determined that the issue had to do with Aptos High’s infrastructure and that the school needed a contractor to come fix its equipment.
“It was on the customer side,” she said. “The high school had to call a contractor, and they had to deal with that issue.”
Magallon said after the district had a contractor work on the equipment on Sunday, PG&E restored power at the school at about 6:24 p.m. As of Monday evening, Magallon said she didn’t know what was causing the school’s continued lack of power.
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