On the night of October 29th, a powerful storm hit parts of Massachusetts knocking out power to nearly 320,000 homes and business according to National Grid. In response, “School was closed on Monday and Tuesday because there was no power at the Middle/High school campus or Salisbury Elementary,” stated Brian Forget, the District Superintendent for Triton.

Forget further explained, “While we have emergency power at the schools from a generator, the phone’s, network, and general day to day activities are limited without having full power, hence the need to cancel.”

The storm itself did not last very long but it’s affects on the local towns imposed quite the damage. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), that is responsible for responding to all statewide emergencies, stated Monday morning that “The hardest hit areas in the North Shore were Salisbury and North Andover… ” Eversource said in a tweet late afternoon on Monday October 30th that they had restored power to over 100,000 customers, “but we do anticipate our restoration effort will extend beyond today.”

Power was returned to SES on Tuesday afternoon, but power at the Middle/High school campus did not permanently return until around 6:30am Wednesday morning.

With already two no school days before the month of November, questions surrounding the process for declaring a no school day become the hot topic. “It depends on the reason, but it is a decision I make after talking with others,” said Forget in a recent interview. “If it’s a snow related event, I have information from the town DPW’s as well as the Chief of Police and some of our own folks who are up bright and early assessing the road conditions and projected forecast for the weather. For this past week’s type of event, it is much more straightforward in that it isn’t about weather or road conditions, rather the lack of power at the school. Once I gather all the information, I make a decision based on all the data, with the primary focus being the safety of all 2,600+ students and 400+ teachers and staff.”

When asked about the recent school cancellations, student Haley Morgan responded, “As a senior, I loved the no school days. I didn’t have power all week so that wasn’t great, but not having to make up missed days makes that better.”

Student Rachel Lees commented, “The advantage of being a senior is not having to worry about making them up in the spring, so I’d say ten no school days would be nice.”

While many students love snow days, especially seniors who avoid the trouble of staying the few extra summer days, there is however a limit to the amount we as a district can have. “By law, we build in 5 extra days to the calendar,” explains Forget. “We have to be in session for 180 days, and the school year must be completed by June 30th. If we ever find ourselves in a situation where either of those two details are in jeopardy, we would have to look at having school on a vacation day, or Saturday, or something else creative. That hasn’t ever happened at Triton as far as I know.”

As far as the entertaining voice mails done by Forget that you might remember from last year’s no school phone calls, he assures everyone, “I wasn’t ready to start so early….the fun calls will return, I promise. But those work better in the events I can call the night before. Some people aren’t in laughing moods when I have to call at 5:45am!”