Nearly five dozen pupils at Gaeta (Italy) American School are being told to stay home for the remainder of the week while emergency work is done on electrical circuit boxes near their classrooms.
The 58 children in second through fourth grades won’t return to class until Monday. The school said the children will not have to make up any missed class work.
Altogether, about 170 pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade attend the school at Naval Support Activity Gaeta, about 60 miles northwest of Naples.
Base Public Works Department personnel conducting a routine inspection determined that the circuit boxes on the school’s second floor were “unsafe and needed to be repaired,” according to a community advisory released Tuesday.
The advisory states that the school’s principal, Tim Erickson, made the decision to cancel classes because “of the impact this loss of electricity would have on the learning environment.”
Classrooms on the school’s other two floors still will have electricity and those children will remain in class.
The school was built in 1972 and, along with other base buildings, receives weekly safety inspections from Public Works personnel.
The affected pupils were allowed to finish class on Tuesday as base officials determined that, although the boxes needed to be repaired, they didn’t pose an immediate safety hazard.
School officials were calling parents of the affected children and will send fliers home to explain the cancellation.
