Salt Lake City School District delays first day again
Sep 8, 2020, 6:11 PM | Updated: Sep 9, 2020, 5:40 am
FILE -- (Photo: Kelli Pierce)
(Photo: Kelli Pierce)
SALT LAKE CITY – The Salt Lake City School District has again delayed the start of school after hurricane-force winds pummeled northern Utah.
The district made the decision because many of its schools remain without power.
The district is starting the school year completely online, except for a few special education classes and athletic activities.
District spokeswoman Yandary Chatwin says hurricane-force winds knocked out power and internet to several neighborhoods on Tuesday.
“We heard from families in Rose Park and the Avenues and Sugar House. So, it’s across the city and not just in one area,” Chatwin says.
We currently have power outages in more than half of our schools, and it may take up to two days to restore power to everyone. For that reason, we have made the tough decision to cancel school for tomorrow. We have posted more information at https://t.co/ieN9l8JiSa.#SLCSD #uted pic.twitter.com/zaZOIHCpSf
— SLC School District (@slcschools) September 9, 2020
Even though some students and teachers were lucky to log onto the system, the district felt it was unfair to others to start school.
“Without having equal access across the city, most of our folks weren’t able to get online. We’re really disappointed we weren’t able to start school today as we’ve been planning to,” Chatwin says.
Whether school begins on Thursday will depend on how much power and internet is restored to families so kids can take their classes online.
The district will continue monitoring the situation before making a decision.
“We will let parents know as soon as we make a call. One way or the other we’ll send a message tonight to let parents know where we stand. If something changes overnight, we’ll use our typical alert system,” Chatwin says.
The Salt Lake City School District will also post a decision about the first day of school on their website.
Currently, classes on Wednesday are canceled in both the Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber School Districts.
Weather forecasts call for continued strong winds until at least mid-morning tomorrow. In light of that, we are canceling school for all DSD schools Wednesday, Sept. 9, because of power outages, continued weather threats and highway restrictions for high-profile vehicles.
— DavisSchools (@DavisSchools) September 9, 2020
