Storm Forces Naugatuck to Cancel School on Monday

School in Naugatuck has been cancelled for Monday, Oct. 31, as all but one school in the borough still lacks power following the October snowstorm.

Mayor Robert Mezzo said any decisions on future closings beyond Monday will be announced later, after more information on power restoration becomes available.

But according to Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson, “It wouldn’t surprise me at all” if there was no school on Tuesday.

“There’s power being restored everywhere,” Tindall-Gibson said, noting that as of Sunday afternoon. “Hopefully we’ll get it restored and back in business in a day, but I’m not holding my breath.”

Right now, school officials are taking it one day at a time, the superintendent said.

“In every community it’s not a weather event anymore, it’s just a matter of getting power back,” he said. “We just have to assess that each day.”

Earlier in the day on Sunday, only four schools didn’t have power: Western and Prospect schools, Hillside Intermediate School and Naugatuck High School. But later as the day went on, a transmission line reportedly went down, causing six other schools to go down as well.

The only school with power is Andrew Avenue School, which and a place for residents to charge cell phones. The school will be open until 8 p.m.

With another day removed from the school's calendar, this means the borough can use up one more snow day this year. If another snow day is used, then Naugatuck schools will start pulling from the April vacation to make up for even further snow days.

Again, Tindall-Gibson noted that could happen.