High winds last week caused thousands of Ventura County residents to lose power, including many Oak Park High School students and staff. Some of these outages were precautionary by Southern California Edison, while others were caused by damaged power lines. 

According to the VC Star, “The gusts, recorded between 50 to 70 mph throughout the county, also damaged homes in Santa Paula and Moorpark, fed two small brushfires in Ventura, caused a water-main break in Ventura and even blew over a high-profile truck in Simi Valley. At least one weather station in the area clocked gusts in the 90 mph range.”

OPHS principal Kevin Buchanan sent multiple Parent Square messages in response to the outages, including one to remind parents to call the attendance line if their child was unable to join any classes. Later that day, another message was sent out to parents, stating that the attendance voice-mailbox was full.

“Today was an unusual day and we are expecting similar challenges tomorrow,” Buchanan wrote in the Parent Square post. “Teachers will send updates and assignments/lesson information on Parent Square or Google Classroom. Please have your child check throughout the day. If some classes are unable to meet, attendance will be taken through work completion.”

Buchanan explained that Parent Square was the best choice for a communication platform in this situation.

“[Parent Square] can be accessed on the App through cellular networks.  However, in that recent outages, we found that some cell towers went out and some couldn’t even access cellular data and were unable to see the Posts,” Buchanan wrote.

In the age of COVID-19 and distance learning, these power outages were an issue for students, teachers, aids and administrators across Ventura County. OPHS staff had to adapt to the best of their ability. 

“More staff than we expected drove to campus to get back online using the school power and WiFi.  This was during the Post Holiday COVID-19 surge when the rates were at their highest and we had required almost all of our support staff to work from home, so I was fearful for their safety,” Buchanan wrote.

For students, the power outages caused an attendance and work completion issue.

“It was in the morning around 8:15,” OPHS junior Peter Fernandes wrote to the Talon. “I was not able to complete any school work with my power off.”

Fernandes’ power was out for two full days with no way to get into virtual class meets. 

“To pass the time I just read books and slept,” Fernandes wrote. 

Buchanan explains that although OPHS had not anticipated widespread power outages, staff and students alike have learned how to cope with the event. “We have a better idea of how to deal with similar situations but we are likely to respond on a case by case basis depending on who’s affected,” Buchanan wrote.