CedarBridge Academy closed early after a power outage yesterday,

Classes at the senior school, in Prospect, were expected to resume today after Belco gave it the all-clear.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education said that the school had experienced an outage at about noon. A back-up generator then kicked in.

She added: “Due to compromised air conditioning units, water levels, and cafeteria lunch, students were subsequently sent home.”

The spokeswoman said that Belco reported the outage was caused after breaker handles tripped on two fuse system boxes.

She added that the transformer system had been checked and cleared by Belco.

The spokeswoman said: “Universal Electric Ltd has been called to assess and repair the system boxes and work is expected to be complete in time to resume classes tomorrow.

“The Department of Education made the decision to close the school for the remainder of the day in the interest of student and staff safety.”

Kalmar Richards, the Commissioner of Education, said: “We never want to send students home in the middle of school instruction if at all possible.

“However when safety becomes an issue, we must do what we feel is necessary to protect our students and staff.”