ANN ARBOR – The aftermath of last week’s storms was felt in classrooms as a power outage forced five Ann Arbor School District schools to close Monday.
For some Ann Arbor students, summer break is still ongoing.
“I might go on bike rides,” said student Grey Swan. “I might go over to my friends.”
Ann Arbor Public Schools delayed the first day of classes for five schools due to the system-wide impact of power outages following Thursday’s storms.
“We were so sad,” said parent Lauren Heidemann. “I took the day off so I could walk them on their first day, and we have been talking about this all summer since it’s her first day at a new school.”
Huron High School, Forsythe Middle School, Lakewood Elementary School, Thurston Elementary School, and Wines Elementary School were closed on Monday (Aug. 28), affecting a few thousand students.
“Our crews were working all weekend long,” said AAPS Communications Director Andrew Cluley. “Anytime you have extended power outages, it’s a process of restarting the school essentially.”
Near Wines and Forsythe, utility crews Monday afternoon were hard at work fixing downed lines.
Some homes in the area are still without power.
“Wines Elementary and Forsythe Middle School share a campus,” Cluley said. “That was seemingly where the worst damage was.”
Grandparent Mike Rains split up the day with each of his grandchildren. He took his six-year-old grandson to a soccer field.
“He starts soccer tomorrow, and we thought, OK, if there is no school, we get to go out in the field and work on the basics,” said Rains.
“We know how important it is for schools to have the power they need to resume classes. That’s why we prioritized restoring area schools, including those in Ann Arbor, following last week’s back-to-back extreme weather events. We kept in close contact with the Washtenaw County Schools Superintendent throughout the weekend and restored all but one school by Sunday. The remaining school was restored this morning. We appreciate the partnership with Washtenaw County Schools while we made the repairs necessary to welcome students back to the classroom.
DTE