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SLPS students return to school, some without power on the first day

Students were transferred to Nottingham CAJT High School because Busch Middle School had a power outage. Ameren said power was restored by 10 a.m. Monday.

ST. LOUIS — The first day of school is filled with new teachers and classmates, but for Busch Middle School of Character students, their first day included a power outage.

Ameren Missouri said the outage was caused "by a tree limb that fell on a line and brought it down," Tommie Bugett, division director for the electric company, said. 

Bench tables at Busch Middle School sat empty on Monday because of a power outage. St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) made the decision to move students to Nottingham CAJT High School just minutes away. 

George Sells, the director of communications for SLPS, said the power outage happened early Monday morning. 

"Once attendance was taken first period [and] the lights weren't back on, we went ahead and bussed them all over to Nottingham High School," Sells said.

Sells said students were on buses to the high school by 9 a.m. Monday morning. Parents got notified by phone, email or social media about the power outage.

Ameren Missouri said it received a report of a power outage at 5:37 a.m. Monday and it deployed crews at 6 a.m. to fix it. The electric company restored power at 10 a.m. 

Credit: SLPS

"Because of this heat, anything can happen. I was at work when my son texted me. He said dad, we're at a different school. I was surprised I didn't know," Haroon Safi, a Busch Middle School parent, said.

Safi's son, Sohrab, said he feels like his dad felt. 

"It was kind of surprising to move on the first day of school, I didn't really expect it," Sohrab said. 

Sohrab said things were not ideal inside Nottingham High School.

"It was very uncomfortable because we didn't have any chairs, we were just sitting on the gym floor," Sohrab said. 

But Sells said the high school could take the influx of students. 

"Nottingham has some space so we were able to bring the kids in, divide them up into classrooms and we got them inside basically having their school day there. So a little curveball nobody was expecting but these are the kinds of things you have to deal with sometimes," Sells said.

SLPS said it's optimistic students will return to Busch Middle School on Tuesday because Ameren Missouri restored the power.

 

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