January 26, 2009

A message from Head of School Larry Van Meter about today's school closing

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As you all know, we had to close school today.  The root problem was the failure of two transformers on Main Street.  It’s important to note that although the fire department responded to an automated alarm, there was no fire—contrary to reports on KYW-3's website.

Here’s a quick summary of what caused this closure.  It’s based on the best information available at this juncture and is subject to change as we learn more:

• At about 6:50 a.m., a power transformer on Main Street, near Roberts Hall, “blew,” sending sparks flying and cutting off service from one of two major electrical lines serving the school.
• PSE&G was called and arrived shortly after 8 a.m.  PSE&G workers on site predicted that it would take 1-2 hours to get things fully operational.
• However, at about 8:30 a.m., the fire alarm went off, due to some complication (as yet undetermined) related to the power problem.  Again, it’s important to note that there was no fire.
• All students were smoothly evacuated according to fire drill procedures; however, given the cold conditions, the fire chief gave us permission to move younger students to the Meeting House, which never lost power or heat, and the remainder (and attendant faculty/staff) to the Dining Hall/Commons, which was without power but provided shelter and residual heat.
• Shortly thereafter, another transformer, this time one located just to the east of our main entrance, also “blew,” cutting power to all but the Meeting House.
• At that point, my team and I determined that school would have to be cancelled.
• We triggered the Alert Now system (automated phone messaging service) to ask parents to pick up their children according to normal pick-up protocols; our highest priority was safety and ensuring that we could account for every child.
• Parents arrived promptly; administrators and staff directed traffic since the maintenance staff was tied up with the fire department and PSE&G.
• Buses were called to pick up remaining children only after most parental pickups had been completed; we did not permit any Lower School students on buses and Middle School students only with clear parent consent;  at all costs, we wanted to avoid having children arrive at unoccupied homes.
• Power was restored shortly before noon, and we are progressively getting our electrical infrastructure up and running;  we have an electrician here to see if there has been damage to circuits or switches due to the several power surges that took place;  it will be hours before things are back to normal.
• All school functions have been cancelled for today and tonight, but we expect to be fully operational tomorrow.
• An additional Alert Now message was sent earlier this afternoon to convey, in effect, that we’re now in all-clear mode and will be open tomorrow.

I want to say how proud I am of all administrators, faculty, staff (especially the maintenance staff), students, and parents for their level-headed response to what could have been a much larger problem.  I apologize for the huge inconvenience this problem created and appreciate your flexibility in helping us cope.  Another example of MFS “resilience” at work!

Hastily,




Larry Van Meter
Head of School

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