All classes have been cancelled at Meridian High School after the school lost power to the main building Wednesday morning.

School officials say the power outage appears to be caused by construction at the school, 1900 W Pine Ave., which is in the middle of a five-year plan improve the campus.

All 1,500 students were in class when the power went out just before 9 a.m. That triggered fire alarms and caused students to be evacuated from the building. The students were then taken to the gym, which still had power, while officials figured out what was going on, spokesman Eric Exline said.

School officials decided to send the students home for the day after figuring out it would take several hours to restore power to the main building.

Kids who take the bus to school will get bus service back home around 9:30 a.m. School officials used a phone notification system to let parents know what was going on.

Exline said repairs should be made by Wednesday afternoon and classes should go as scheduled Thursday. Sports should not be affected, as the gym does have power.