Students at G.M. Dawson high school in Masset got an unexpected day off Oct. 31 after the building's boilers broke down.
School district maintenance supervisor Paul Allen said the boilers probably stopped functioning the day before, but staff didn't notice until they came to school Hallowe'en morning and the air was noticeably chilly.
Mr. Allen said the school district has a policy that room temperature should be "conducive to learning", in the range of 20 degrees give or take a few degrees. If it looks like the temperature might be over or under that range for more than a little while, senior staff can decide to send the students home.
That's what happened in this case. Mr. Allen got one of the boilers fixed fairly quickly, and students and staff returned to a warm school the next day.