News Update

Newsom said power outages expected to ease by Wednesday

In response to rolling blackout power outages that have occurred due to a heat wave in California over the weekend, Gov. Newsom on Monday signed an executive proclamation aimed at investigating the reasons Calfornia wasn’t prepared and didn’t give residents and businesses adequate warning. He said the power outages could continue through Wednesday and urged Californians to limit energy use from 3-10 p.m.

Although Newsom noted that the outages are “short-term,” he said the state would likely take loss of power into consideration if it affects distance learning in terms of required instructional minutes and student attendance. However, he was not sure how this would be addressed.

Newsom also announced that the county monitoring list that has been frozen since July 31 has been updated with backlogged data, with Amador, Mendocino, Inyo, Calaveras and Sierra counties added to the list and Santa Cruz County removed, bringing the total to 42 counties. County public health departments are using the list to determine whether schools can reopen for in-person instruction and whether to require elementary schools to request waivers for K-6 instruction.