Early in the morning on Monday, October 28, Irvington’s custodial staff discovered a power outage at Irvington’s new building. All students and staff inside were required to evacuate before the first period began so that the building could be locked until the issue was resolved. As of 11:48 AM, classes had returned to the new building as normal.
Over the weekend, Irvington’s campus was breached and the electrical generator was vandalized. The generator was set up to reduce load on Irvington’s main transformer, following the electrical overswitch heat earlier this month. Its wire’s heavy-duty copper was stolen, and it is currently unknown who and how many people were involved with the crime. As a result of the power outage, twelve classrooms were affected by the lack of light and air circulation. Administration held an urgent meeting right before the school day began for students to devise a temporary solution.
“We were given different classroom numbers to go to each period throughout the day,” explained Ms. Mohandas, a teacher whose classroom was impacted by the outage. “It’s tough having to move around while carrying my materials.” Administration used Irvington’s master schedule to locate their available classrooms when teachers had their prep period. After arranging their plans, lists were posted on paper at the entrance of the new building to direct students to the correct classes. Principal Hicks also announced that advisories originally in the new building would take place in the big gym.
Around 8:30 AM, many pickup trucks arrived at the school, parking near the generator and the new building to assess and repair the damage. “Someone had cut the wire in between the [generator] trailer and the roof, and they probably took about 150 feet worth of heavy-duty copper wire,” described Mr. Hicks. “We filed a police report and called to fabricate new cables.”
Despite the financial costs of the damages, repairs were completed quicker than expected. At 11:48 AM, Mr. Hicks announced that the power was restored and classes in the new building were back in session as originally scheduled.
Similar incidents, such as the robbery of ASG’s safe last year, have happened before, though it is unclear if this incident is related. To prevent future disruptions to the learning environment due to such vandalism and theft, Irvington plans to hire security to monitor the school on weekends and at night.
On November 4, roughly a week after the original incident, contractors arrived to work on the generator and change the oil. Due to miscommunication, they arrived on campus during the third period rather than after school. The generator was turned off while classes were still in session, causing another unexpected outage within the new building. After approximately 20 minutes, the generator was turned back on and classes resumed with normal power.
In order to make significant improvements to Irvington’s aging infrastructure and avoid such incidents in the future, there must be a significant overhaul of school facilities. These adjustments can be quite costly, but voters in Fremont have approved Measure M— a measure on the ballot that will provide FUSD with nearly a billion dollars to make these improvements. Although results are yet to be officially certified, the measure holds a commanding lead as of November 7, 2024.
