Every elementary school student hopes the power will go out so school will be dismissed early. Those dreams could become a reality in Sandy.

Five schools may be affected by planned power outages in Sandy: Lone Peak, Altara and Sunrise elementary schools, Indian Hills Middle School and Alta High School. Bob Day, the Jordan School District's assistant superintendent over facilities, told the district school board about the possibility Tuesday.Dave Eskelsen, Utah Power spokesman, said only Lone Peak and Sunrise elementary schools, year-round schools, are in the outage zones. Year-round school begins July 25.

Children at Lone Peak Elementary will be sent home if power goes out and classrooms get too hot, said principal G. Larry Fryer said. "We have an emergency evacuation program set up," he said.

Faculty at Sunrise Elementary School will try to develop a plan to run school outdoors, according to principal Frank W. Shaw. Without electricity, "we don't have sufficient light to conduct school," he said. However, the school does have emergency generators.

Day said most of the power outages are not long enough to put the schools in any danger. The schools could handle eight-hour power outages, "provided there are no kids in the building," he said.

The schools are equipped with a security system that signals the district police department when the power goes out. Emergency power comes on automatically, but it does not provide enough power to operate all building power needs. The emergency power is used to keep refrigerators running, fans turning and provides some light. Once power is restored, a custodian will check the building's electrical system.

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"The power company is sensitive that schools will be in session," Day said, but there are no guarantees outage will not occur during school hours.

Most of the planned power outages have occurred between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., said Rick Davis, public relations director in Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan's office.

"Both Utah Power & Light and the city of Sandy do not expect any more power outages," Davis said.

Utah Power officials are less optimistic because of temperature concerns. If the temperature reaches the high 90s, the demand for power is much greater. Eskelsen said the temperature was over 100 degrees three times in July 1995.

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