Dear O.L. Smith Families,
We wanted to give you a brief synopsis of what occurred on Friday, March 10, 2017 with the abrupt power outage.
At 12:44 PM, O.L. Smith and the neighboring area abruptly lost power. In coordination with District Administration, we put into place a plan wherein we delayed passing time between classes and lunch because hallways were dark and we wanted to ensure that there was enough staff available in the hallways to support the students.
The first robocall was sent to update parents on the situation and that all was well so that parents would be informed. Additionally, the original plan was to hold the students until regular dismissal. Also, there were updates placed on the school’s iBlog.
The reason for using the generic computerized voice robocall system was due to the power outage, we did not have the ability to send out a message with a real human voice.
At 2:00, the Dearborn Police came to OL Smith and asked us to dismiss students early because the lights went out on Telegraph and they were there to assist in directing traffic. Through a coordinated effort between OL Smith and the Dearborn Police Department, we wanted to ensure that we had assistance for students crossing Telegraph and to assist the busses as they departed from OL Smith. We requested that we dismiss at 2:30 in order to give parents enough time to be prepared for a 25 minute earlier dismissal which was an idea supported by Dearborn Police.
Any student that needed to wait, waited in the school, all students were supported by staff at passing time and dismissal, and the dismissal went smoothly based on all of the unexpected situations that occurred.
I hope this explanation helps in understanding how and why the procedure that was used was put into place. Thank you everyone for your support and understanding.
Mr. Fisher, Principal
Dr. Mosallam, Executive Director