School districts across Western Pennsylvania were working through the aftermath of a destructive storm front that cut through the region early Tuesday evening.

School administrators were reviewing their options Wednesday afternoon.

Classes are expected to resume Thursday at Greater Latrobe and Derry Area school districts after instruction was canceled Wednesday at the two neighboring districts owing to storm damage and related power outages.

Just like a snow day in winter, school administrators are looking at their instructional calendars to determine if school cancellations will need to be made up.

The storm cut power Tuesday at the Greater Latrobe junior-senior high school campus in Unity and cut a JV baseball game short in the sixth inning, according to Jon Mains, assistant to the superintendent for secondary education.

While the storm didn’t affect the district’s three elementary schools, he said, remote instruction couldn’t be offered because Greater Latrobe’s internet servers are located at the high school.

“We knew we had some people in the community who didn’t have power,” Mains said.

Power was restored at the Greater Latrobe High School by Wednesday afternoon. Mains said district officials will be meeting to decide whether an additional instructional day should be added to the school calendar.

Other area schools

• Franklin Regional officials also told district families that widespread outages made it unfeasible to have students learn from home on Wednesday.

With more than half the homes in Murrysville still without power as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, district spokesperson Tina Gillen said FR officials are waiting to make a decision about school on Thursday.

Power had been restored to FR’s high school building in Murrysville by Wednesday afternoon, but not at its elementary schools. Gillen said administrators can’t make a decision about make-up days until they determine whether they’ll need to cancel classes for a second day.

• Penn-Trafford also canceled classes Wednesday, as the high school and two of its elementary schools — Sunrise and Level Green — were without power, said Superintendent Matthew Harris. Electricity was restored around noon Wednesday.

Class will resume Thursday, Harris said. Teachers will serve an Act 80 day at the end of the school year to make up for the cancellation.

• At Derry Area, the adjacent secondary and elementary campuses lost power at about 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to Superintendent Greg Ferencak.

A baseball game and boys’ volleyball game had to be rescheduled.

“We do have backup generators, but not enough to operate school for 1,800 students,” Ferencak said.

Initially, he said, the district planned to delay the start of school on Wednesday, as he learned that First Energy crews were making progress on restoring power. But, he said, he was unable to get through to the utility and opted to cancel school to be on the safe side. It turned out to be a good call.

“Power was restored at our campus at about 8 a.m., but then we had another outage,” Ferencak said. “We were fully functional at around 11 a.m.”

Ferencak said the school board is scheduled to meet Thursday evening and will have several options to consider for meeting annual state guidelines for completing instructional hours.

• Students in the Plum Borough School District had the day off, and administrators said since the district is already on track to exceed its required instructional days, students will not need to make up the day.

• Despite building lights that flickered during the storms Tuesday evening, Greensburg Salem did not lose power, said Superintendent Ken Bissell. Maintenance workers and building principals walked the school campuses Wednesday and did not report any damage.

Though many of the districts’ families were without power, Greensburg Salem held class in person Wednesday and will remain open Thursday, Bissell said.

“If families needed a place for kids to be,” he said, “(the schools) are a safe place.”

• Hempfield Area lost power Tuesday evening and canceled classes Wednesday, said Superintendent Mark Holtzman. The district will hold in-person classes Thursday, as power restored Wednesday.

Staff writers Jeff Himler, Quincey Reese and Patrick Varine contributed.

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