Fairfax Elementary Is Closed Today Because Of Power Outage

Fairfax Elementary School is closed today due to the building not having power.

All other schools in the Mentor district are open today.

This if Fairfax's fifth calamity day of the year. It lost three days earlier this year after a Hurricane Sandy hangovers knocked out its power and another day earlier this month because of snow.

Schools are alotted five calamity days per year. This means -- under normal circumstances -- if a building misses more than five days, they would have to make up the balance some time before the end of the school year.

However, all the Mentor Public Schools have an additional 3-day buffer before they need to make up calamity days. This is because the district participates in the Blizzard Bag program.

The Blizzard Bag program allows the schools to post prepared assignments online during a calamity day.

If 80 percent of students complete their assignments, then the calamity day will not count against the district's total.

That means even Fairfax would need to have more than four additional calamity days (and more than eight total) before its school year is extended.

Though the wind advisory is due to end this morning, the National Weather Service is predicting snow will continue through Friday night.

Meteorologists are saying that the area could receive between one and two feet of snow by then.