At one large district, the maintenance staff volunteered to pull graveyard shifts to rotate a generator from site to site, making sure the food in storage stayed cold.

Many found that although some perishables such as milk had to be thrown out, most frozen items were preserved.

Tulsa Public Schools' food storage warehouse near Pine Street and Memorial Drive did not lose power, so its supplies were never in danger, said Hossein Akhtarkhavari, district manager for Sodexho, the district's child nutrition contractor.

Leonard's school secretary Debbie Shanks said her husband, Nathan Shanks, and a neighbor volunteered to keep the food in freezers frozen with generator power.

"He's just kind of one of these that likes to help out," Shanks said Friday.

Maintenance workers at Jenks Public Schools moved perishable food to the district's warehouse near Jones Riverside Airport, said Tara Thompson, spokeswoman for the district.

"What couldn't be moved, we were able to save by using the generator," Thompson said.

Workers were not asked, but they volunteered to rotate a portable generator from site to site, ensuring that no food would be lost, Thompson said.

Keystone Middle School Principal Phil Winfield said his district lost some refrigerated items, but the frozen pizza survived.

Winfield estimated that about half of the students who attended school Friday were still without power at their residences.

Gary Johnson, superintendent at Skiatook Public Schools, said the district lost some milk and other perishables.

"Nothing major. It's not going to hamper our ability to feed the kids Monday," he said.

Owasso Superintendent Clark Ogilvie said the district's loss of perishable food was minimal because the main storage areas had power returned soon enough to preserve most of it.

Liberty Public Schools did not lose a lot of food, but it did sustain a loss. When Superintendent Kent Holbrook returned to the school Wednesday, he noticed the door to the school's art room was open.

"They got a SMART board, a SMART board projector, two computers and the teacher's personal video camera," Holbrook said of the thefts.

A SMART board is an interactive, electronic tool teachers use to project lessons and activities onto a screen visible to an entire classroom.

"It is an unusual item. . . . What pawnshop is going to want a SMART screen projector?" Holbrook said.

He said administrators are not sure what the total value is for the lost items.

Nora Froeschle 581-8310
nora.froeschle@tulsaworld.com