Schools
School Weathers Hurricane Irene; Roof Construction Delayed
Hurricane Irene will tighten the district's preparation schedule, but schools are largely back to normal.
Attleboro Public schools were not significantly impacted by the wrath of Hurricane Irene, though the preparation schedule will be tight due to the several days without power.
“I’m very happy to report that we didn’t really have anything significant happen structurally,” said the Attleboro Schools Business Manager Marc Furtado. “The obvious major impact was the loss of power.”
The teachers did not miss any professional development time as the first professional development day is slated for September 6. Food in the school's refrigerators were okay because the generators kept it all refrigerated during the power outages.
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As of Friday afternoon all of the schools had power. , which was re-energized Thursday afternoon, was one of the last to have its power restored.
However, given the loss of power as well as a the Labor Day holiday on Monday, teachers and administrators will be crunched for time to get their classrooms ready for the first day of school on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
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, which was a designated during the storm, was without power until August 31. The shelter operated on generators until power was restored.
“This caused the school to lose two days of preparation for the opening of school, but the staff is working hard to make sure we will be ready,” Principal Jeff Newman said.
“It’s cutting it very close in terms of getting the schools ready,” Furtado said.
Even after the schools regained power, they still had to wait until the buildings could be secured.
One chief concern was the status of the new roofs at , , and and how they would be affected the by the strong winds and heavy rain of the hurricane.
“The held up as they should with no leaks,” Furtado confirmed.
During the summer, Furtado said the construction was on time and on budget, but Irene caused the loss of four days of construction time on the roofs, which means they will not be completed before the start of school.
“Our schedule is going to interfere with the start of school,” Furtado said, adding that it will most likely only be a day or two of work to be completed after the start of the school year.
