Moniteau School District will remain closed Tuesday after last Thursday’s ice storm killed power at its schools.

Moniteau High School was without power on Monday, according to Superintendent Sean Arney. Electricity at Dassa McKinney Elementary School was restored on Monday.

“You can’t really operate a full district with only one building open,” Arney said.

Arney said the district chose to close because half the district and many residents’ homes were still without power.

“It’s like a big gut punch for our area,” Arney said.

The high school’s power is provided through Central Electric Cooperative, he said, while the elementary school is powered by West Penn Power.

Arney said he was more worried about residents’ power than the school at this point, especially with Thanksgiving approaching.

“The earliest estimate is early morning to Wednesday,” Arney said for restoration of power.

The district is closed for the holiday on Wednesday.

Arney said staff needs to take inventory of how much food survived the outage and what needs to be replaced as well as examine its various utility systems to check for problems that might have arisen. The district runs its own sewage lines and produces its own water.

Freezers appeared to be holding temperature properly, he said, although all refrigerated food was lost.

Both the Karns City and the South Butler school districts opened later than usual on Monday, but planned to be open with regular schedules on Tuesday, according to administrative staff at both districts.

Power was restored to the Butler School District’s Center Township and Summit Township elementary schools on Monday, meaning the full district will be operating on normal schedules on Tuesday, according to the district superintendent’s office.