Lights out at Merrick Ave. Middle School on opening day

Merrick Avenue Middle School experienced a half-power outage on Tuesday, the first day of school, said Michelle Gagnon, a district spokeswoman.

Gagnon said that problems with an electric pole behind the school caused power to go out in half of the building, and that the Long Island Power Authority was working to fix the problem.

According to Gagnon, LIPA officials said they would prefer to have the students removed from the school while they worked, but they would not force students to leave.

Gagnon said that students could make arrangements with their parents to be picked up, but added, “If they can’t make arrangements, there is full supervision until regular dismissal.”

Gagnon said it was a standard outage, and that the day would run normally for students who remained in the school.

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