Fox C-6 Superintendent Jim Wipke obviously has had a lot of new experiences since taking over the school district’s top job, and another one of those “firsts,” he said, happened last night (Oct. 6), when Board of Education members held their meeting in a dark building illuminated only by a few camping lanterns placed along the table where they sat.
The Fox C-6 Service Center, 849 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold, where school board meetings typically are held, was without power Tuesday night, as were 380 customers in Arnold, said Ameren spokesman Jeff Trammel.
A bird and bird nest “on the primary line” caused the outage, Trammel said.
He said power was out for approximately an hour, from about 6:30-7:30 p.m.
For the special Fox school board meeting last night, school officials first met for a closed meeting in a small room inside the service center, using about six lanterns that fortunately are stored inside the building for just those types of emergencies.
Then, for the board’s open meeting, officials moved to the service center’s conference room, bringing the lanterns with them.
At the start of the open meeting, Wipke asked if anyone brought marshmallows, joking about the camp-like atmosphere.
The open meeting was shorter than expected since several presentations had to be rescheduled for a later meeting. The next regular school board meeting is set for Tuesday, Oct. 20.
However, the board was able to take care of some business, including agreeing to spend $191,927 to buy six trucks to replace old ones in the district’s fleet. See next week’s Leader for more information about the purchase.