Power outage causes early dismissal of Gentry schools

— A faulty electrical transformer was the culprit which caused Gentry Schools to dismiss early on Monday.

School was dismissed at 11 a.m. Monday because three of the four campuses were affected by the power shortage - the primary-, middle- and high-school campuses.

Junior high ball games scheduled for Monday evening were also canceled and rescheduled in Pea Ridge on Tuesday.

As a result of the power outages, notification of parents and others became more difficult as well. The power outage affected phone lines at the schools and access to Internet.

Parents and family members were notified of the early closings via the news media, the school district’s website and its new sign, as well as through student text messages and posts to social media sites.

Shortly before 1:30 p.m., Barrett sent out an email identifying the cause of the electrical problem and saying that it had been repaired by Empire District Electric, meaning that school was set to resume on Tuesday at its regular hours.

News, Pages 1 on 01/23/2013