EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. — Some Northern California schools have canceled classes due to planned blackouts from PG&E.
While some decisions are still being made, others have already decided to cancel classes.
The Grass Valley School District and all district programs will be closed Wednesday, September 9 due to PG&E power shutoffs. The district made the decision to close after it said most district sites are without power. PG&E reports power will be restored Wednesday after 7pm. Officials say they hope to resume online learning and other programs on Thursday.
The Placer County Office of Education announced Alta-Dutch Flat School closed due to the shutoffs.
Multiple districts in El Dorado County — Camino Union School District, Placerville Union School District, Pollock Pines Union School District, Pioneer Union School District and Gold Oak Union School District — announced school closures for Tuesday, September 8.
"We will need... to make tomorrow a no school day," Eric Bonniksen, Placerville Union School District superintendent said. "This is more of an issue since we have students attending class on-site and they will be missing one of their on-campus days."
The Nevada City School District announced all schools are canceled, as well as its regularly scheduled school board meeting for Tuesday, September 8.
Calaveras County Superintendant Scott Nalnik said Vallecito Union School District, Calaveras Unified School District's West Point Elementary and the Adult Transition program would close due to the shutoffs. All are expected to resume operations on Thursday.
The Plumas County Office of Education announced school closures at Chester Elementary School, Greenville Elementary School and all Quincy schools.
PG&E, California's largest utility, shut off power to 172,000 customers to guard against its power lines and other equipment sparking wildfires. High winds are forecast for the next two days, and fire danger is high throughout wildfire-ravaged California. The electric company said the outages started at 9 p.m. Monday, September 7, and affect 22 counties in Central and Northern California. The utility hopes to return power by Wednesday night.
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PG&E Power Shutoffs: Power out for 172,000 customers because of fire risk