State testing at Park Road Elementary School in Chandler was postponed after a downed power line partially disrupted power to the school, according to Superintendent Scott Baade.
Severe storms moved through the area early Tuesday morning, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and some hail. At some point, the storm knocked down a power line across a creek east of the school. It was still live at the time it was discovered, though it didn't auect all of the electricity in the building. Baade said it was "sizzling" and "crackling" on the ground.
"There were still lights in some classrooms, but no outlets. And then there were others, there were outlets, but no lights. Then, in the hallway, we had lights,” he said. "So, some of the teachers were doing, you know,
they were doing a great job of adapting to what they could do.”
To fix the line, electricity had to be cut to the entire building. It was then that the decision was made to send the students home and reschedule state testing, which was supposed to take place on Tuesday. Baade said testing was to take place on Wednesday or Thursday. "We push ours more so to the end so that we can get more learning in for our kids before they take those," he said. "We've got a small window, but we just like to give our kids a better chance of having success in those tests.”
The repair was made on Tuesday afternoon.
East Side Elementary was also without power for part of Tuesday morning, but it was restored a little after 9 a.m. Baade said the children spent that time in the cafeteria and gym. There were no reported power outages or damage at the high school or junior high.