Why Lights At MA School Have Been On For Over A Year: Report

WILBRAHAM, MA — Ever since a system failure more than a year ago, the more than 7,000 lights at Minnechaug Regional High School have been on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, eating up taxpayer dollars, NBC News revealed in a report Thursday.

The "green" lighting system, which was installed more than a decade ago in an attempt to save money by automatically adjusting the lights as needed, failed on Aug. 24, 2021, leaving teachers to manually remove bulbs in classrooms and other staff members to shut off breakers not connected to the main system in a desperate attempt to conserve energy, the outlet reported.

But the money-saver became a money-sucker over the summer of 2021 when "the lighting system went into default,” Aaron Osborne, the assistant superintendent of finance at the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District, told NBC News. “And the default position for the lighting system is for the lights to be on.”

Osbourne told the outlet that after the failure, the district immediately reached out to the company that installed the system, but the response was delayed due to the fact that it had changed hands several times since the school was built. So months passed, and community members' wallets suffered.

“We are very much aware this is costing taxpayers a significant amount of money,” Osborne told NBC News. “And we have been doing everything we can to get this problem solved.”

And fortunately for the district and the community, the solution might have just arrived in the form of a package from China.

Paul Mustone, president of the Reflex Lighting Group, told NBC News that the parts needed to replace the system were finally sent from the factory and the installation is planned for over February break.

“And yes, there will be a remote override switch so this won’t happen again,” Mustone added to the outlet.

Read the full report at NBC News.