News

On November 20, students showed up to a dark school. Students were told to go to their regular classes and follow their schedule. Teachers were told to keep their students in the building as they tried to continue teaching. Principal Bill Gregory made his standard periodic announcements to keep everyone updated on the situation. With every beep of the PA system, students hoped for him to pronounce that classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. Finally, at about 9:45 a.m., the lights flashed back on to the dismay of many students. Classroom instruction continued as scheduled for the rest of the day. Students were left wondering why the electricity cut or why classes were not cancelled earlier. However, this morning was nothing new to juniors and seniors.

The first significant outage occurred during the first period midterm exam in January 2008. Students were encouraged to finish the exam to the best of their abilities using the minimal light from the windows. Students were dismissed after the first period exam was over and the second exam was rescheduled to a future date. Classes with insufficient light to finish or students who felt they did not perform as well as they could have were given the opportunity to retake the exam a week later.

"The testing conditions were horrible," recalls Gregory. "I had to push for cancelling second period. Then, it did eventually get cancelled. [The problem with deciding whether to cancel school] is that the same buses that take our kids home are the same ones for the elementary and middle school students. It is really tough to get all the buses to come back to pick up the students again."

However, that was not the last of the electricity problems in the halls of Sherwood. Over the next three semesters, the lights failed another five times and school was cut short twice.

Perhaps worst of all these outages was the cancellation of the Sherwood vs. Quince Orchard football game in November 2008 due to an outage that occurred several hours before the scheduled kickoff at 6:30. Because the lights went out around 3 p.m. that day, students didn’t find out about it until they showed up to the game. After numerous failed attempts to restore the power in the stadium lights, the game was called off and rescheduled for the next day.

The administration and the county concur that the power outages do not start from school. "The problem with Sherwood that is very different from other places is that we are at the end of the power grid," explains Gregory. "Because we’re at the end, it becomes very difficult for [Pepco] to find the source and try to fix something. This is also why we tend to lose power more than other places. One time the backup generator got flooded by rain. [Otherwise], the initial cause of the electricity cutting is never internal. We did fix the backup generator. However, we can’t control when the power actually goes out. That’s Pepco’s job."

Contrary to the belief of many students, the administration does not have the power to allow early dismissal in such a situation. "As principal, I don’t have permission to close school. I have to work with Larry Bowers from central office to receive permission," says Gregory. "I have to tell them ‘I can’t operate my school [under these conditions]’ and then they make the final decision on whether or not to dismiss students."

The county also works with Pepco to push them to get the power back up and running. "[Pepco] understands how important it is for us to keep schools open," says Bowers, the Chief Operating Officer of MCPS. "The estimate [of the restoration time] they gave me [on November 20] was totally unacceptable and I told them it has to be faster. Within an hour of them getting [to Sherwood], the power was restored."

Both the administration and the county officials agree that they want to keep school open as long as possible. "It’s our goal to make sure schools stay open," says Bowers. "This is particularly important at elementary schools, where [school] essentially serves as a daycare for some kids. A school lunch is also critical for many students around the county."

Nevertheless, most can’t say no to a surprise holiday. "When those lights flicker, I also hope school gets cancelled," says Principal Gregory. "I want to go home just like any of you."