A power outage caused by a severed line supplying the building closed Prospect Mill Elementary School near Bel Air Tuesday morning, according to Harford County Public Schools.
The outage was reported at approximately 7 a.m., at which time the HCPS Facilities Department personnel and BGE were notified, Joseph Licata, HCPS chief of administration said.
"Some staff members and administrators had already arrived at school," Licata explained via email Tuesday afternoon. "No students had arrived. By the time BGE and [HCPS] facilities personnel arrived and diagnosed, buses were about to make their runs."
According to Licata, BGE advised that it would be several hours before its crews could arrive on site and begin work, then several hours to make the repairs, at which point the decision was made to close the school and advise the school community and parents.
The closing announcement came across Twitter after 8 a.m., when some students were already on buses en route to school.
"Buses are making their normal runs for student pick up for families that did not receive this message in time. Students will be transported to the school for parent/guardian pick up," the school system said in an email.
Licata said most students heard the announcement that school was closed and stayed home. A few were delivered by bus to the school, and their parents were notified and made arrangements to pick them up.
"Buses made their runs to ensure safety of students who may not have heard the announcement," he explained. "A small number of children were transported to the school awaiting the arrival of their parents to pick them up to return home."
A broken underground wire feeding the school was discovered outside the building between the street and the transformer, Licata said.
A crew, including a power company truck and construction equipment, could be seen working outside the largely deserted school late Tuesday morning.
BGE crews remained at the scene Tuesday afternoon. Licata said the repairs would hopefully be completed by the evening.
"We have every intention to open school tomorrow, barring some unforeseen circumstance," he said.
According to a sign outside the school, the building's HVAC system is being upgraded, but Licata said this did not cause the line break.
He said there was no work being done in the area and attributed the break to "deteriorating infrastructure or some underground fault, which is a fairly common occurrence these days."
The school, which is on Prospect Mill Road near Route 22, about five miles from Bel Air, has approximately 590 students enrolled this school year, along with 55-60 faculty and staff members, Licata said.