First day postponed: Power outage forced Brevard County school to shut down

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Children at a Brevard County school didn’t get to attend class.

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A power outage forced Eau Gallie High School to shut down Thursday morning.

Florida Power & Light told Channel 9 that the reason for the power outage that forced the district to cancel classes Thursday is still under investigation.

Thursday was the first day of school for most Brevard public schools students.

But an overnight or early morning power outage at Eau Gallie High School forced the district to cancel classes at the Melbourne campus.

“FPL said they thought it would be several more hours before they could restore the power, so, unfortunately, we had to cancel school for today,” said Russ Bruhn, Brevard Public Schools Government and Community Relations. “We do expect things to be back to normal this afternoon, which would mean a normal school day tomorrow.”

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The outage also canceled Thursday’s extracurricular activities at the school.

But the day went smoother at Discovery Elementary in Palm Bay, where the District’s Superintendent, Dr. Mark Rendell, greeted students and parents.

“We’re really excited to start another chapter in our educational journey,” he said. “Parents just need to be patient today-- everybody’s excited, everyone wants things to go perfect-- the first day is not always perfect.”

“I am excited, but my heart’s feeling a little sad,” said parent Nakasha Williams.” Let me hold the tears back, but I am very excited for them.”

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Rendell told Channel 9 the district cleared one major hurdle this summer just to be able to get some of these students to class on time.

“For example, we had a bus driver shortage at the end of last year, and we significantly increased bus driver pay,” he said.” Right now, we have enough drivers in our pipeline to run every route on time-- today, we’re not necessarily starting with every route on time because we have some drivers still going through training.”

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The district is still looking to fill about 90 instructional vacancies.

That’s teachers and support staff.

“I always look for a positive classroom experience for the girls because they need that, and it’s tough being a kid these days,” parent Katherine Angel said.

Rendell said his top priority this school year will be putting the focus back on the classroom.

Read: First day of class at Eau Gallie High School canceled due to power outage

Video: First day postponed: Power outage forced Brevard County school to shut down (Nicolle Osorio, WFTV.com)

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