Power Outage Sends Loker Students to High School Friday

WAYLAND, MA - Wayland Public Schools was one of few districts in Metrowest to hold school on Friday, Feb. 5, as a winter storm roared into the area.

The heavy, wet snow led to thousands of power outages throughout town, including at the Loker School at 47 Loker Street in Wayland.

Superintendent Paul Stein said power went out at Loker around 11 a.m. Friday. Soon after, the kindergartners through fifth graders and their teachers were bused to Wayland High School for the remainder of the school day.

“It was quite a scene,” Stein said, explaining the the Loker students spent the day in the field house and its adjoining rooms. “For some kids it was an adventure. For the most part, I have to really thank the staff for dealing with a difficult situation.”

Stein said he decided to proceed with normal dismissal times for all students in the district in order to allow Wayland’s Department of Public Works the most time possible to clear the roads before buses and parents headed out to bring kids home. Parents throughout the district were advised that they could begin picking up their students 90 minutes before the regular dismissal time, but the buses operated on a normal schedule.

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“What that did is it effectively staggered the traffic,” Stein explained.

He said the decision to hold school on Friday came based on the information that was available to him.

“I second guess it only in the sense that what kind of information did I get this morning and how could I get better information next time,” Stein said. “There are a lot of factors that just kind of add to this. The actual difficulty right now is just all the downed lines and trees.”