Power Restored to All Borough Schools

CL&P restored power to the last three Naugatuck schools by Thursday evening, gearing Naugatuck up for the first day of school on Tuesday.

Borough officials agreed to postpone the start of school — first from Wednesday to Thursday and then from this week to Tuesday, Sept. 6 — due to the fact that Hillside Intermediate School, as well as Western and Hop Brook elementary schools, were without power during the start of the week.

On Friday morning, Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson said power was restored to all three schools and the district is now preparing for a full day of school after the Labor Day Holiday. Hop Brook was the last school that had to be restored.

Naugatuck wasn’t the only municipality in the state to alter its school year start. Several towns recovering from the damage done by Tropical Storm Irene opted to cancel school for the rest of the week and push the start date into September.

Despite now having power, Tindall-Gibson noted it still was the better move to push the first day to next week.

“It gives us more time to do the behind-the-scenes stuff,” he said. “Today, they’re moving food into the schools so there will be food in there on Tuesday… computers have be powered up. There’s a lot of preparation work that we need to do.”

Also, there are still people in Naugatuck that still didn’t have power, Tindall-Gibson said.

Board of Education Chairman David Heller said Thursday that at least a day was needed for the school district to prepare for the first day.

As of Friday morning, the number of customers without power in the borough was at .55 percent, or 78 homes and businesses, according to CL&P’s website.

Apart from the public schools, students at the parochial St. Francis-St. Hedwig are also set to report Tuesday for the first day of classes.