Many parents in the Halifax area were left scrambling today after a mid-day announcement that schools were closing.
Widespread power outages plunged more than half of the 135 schools in the municipality into the dark. That prompted the Halifax Regional Centre for Education to send students home early.
“At the height, we had probably 70 or 75 schools without any power and we had more that would have been operating off a generator,” said HRCE spokeswoman Doug Hadley.
Most students were dismissed at their lunch hour.
What followed for parents was a scramble to get to school and pick them up.
“I have an exam tomorrow so I needed to study the entire day today and we had plans to send her to day care and now she’s with me for the rest of the day, so it’s a little difficult,” said Nida Imran.
The last-minute decision to close schools left parents confused and questioning why classes weren’t cancelled in the morning.
“It would have been more convenient first thing in the morning, especially since power was already off at several of the schools, but what can ya do?” said Danielle Pemberton.
The Halifax Regional Centre for Education says they make a decision about whether to keep schools open or close them based on the forecast.
After speaking with Nova Scotia Power about the exceptional power outages they were facing mid-morning the decision was made to cancel school.
Hadley says the same decision-making process was used before elected school boards in the province were dissolved.
“The decision to cancel schools is an operational decision,” Hadley said. “It’s one that has always rested with staff. It’s one that a year ago would have been made using the same process as the one that was used today.”
This is the first day classes have been cancelled this school year.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Natasha Pace.
