Power Outage

September 3, 2024

Dear Skokie 73.5 Families,

We hope this message finds you and your family well. Thank you for your continued patience with this morning’s last-minute pivot to remote learning due to the electrical service outage at McCracken Middle School. We recognize it is not easy for any family to adapt to this shift on such short notice.

At approximately 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 3, we learned the electricity had gone out at McCracken Middle School. We immediately contacted our electrical service providers. They were not able to give a precise time when service would be restored. By 6:58 a.m., the first of the service crews arrived to assess the situation. They were able to identify the potential causes for the service outage, but they cautioned that it could be several hours before power could be restored.

Middleton Elementary School and Meyer School have not lost electrical service. However, because McCracken Middle School is the hub for our district’s network and security systems, all three schools remain without network access for students and staff. Presently, McCracken is still without electrical service. Furthermore, as we work to restore electrical service at McCracken, our security systems may intermittently lose service.

At 7:14 a.m., we announced through our district communication channels that we would be closing all three buildings and activating our remote learning plan. Our decision to pivot to remote learning was motivated primarily by the desire to preserve the safety of our students and staff. With all three buildings’ security systems operating intermittently, we could not knowingly leave our staff, students, and visitors vulnerable to potential safety risks. Additionally, with no electrical service at McCracken, we faced additional safety concerns due to other systems that depend on electricity—namely lighting, meal service for lunch, and certain plumbing systems. Given we made the announcement well before student arrival times, no students’ or staff’s safety was ever at risk.

We are presently working with providers to fully restore power as quickly as possible. Our electrical service providers are still working to determine the cause of the service interruption and what repairs may be necessary to restore service. At 3:00 p.m. today, we will reach out with updates regarding progress toward service restoration and school tomorrow.

Again, thank you for your patience with this unfolding situation. We are grateful for your ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Dr. Zipporah Hightower
Superintendent