As many Wareham families woke up to day four without electricity on Wednesday, August 31, they also faced another obstacle: How to get their children ready for the first day of school.

School Committee member Rachel Gillette expressed frustration with Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch's decision to open schools as scheduled.

"I'm hearing from many people that today's opening added to an immense amount of stress," Gillette told the committee during its Wednesday evening meeting. "I was listening to families. I was living it myself. The logistics of trying to get children clean and fed were monumental.”

In addition to the additional stress placed on families, Gillette, who serves as a call firefighter for the Onset Fire Department and is mother of twin girls in high school, said she was concerned about the safety of students.

Some roads were still impassable due to downed trees and not all fallen live wires have been addressed by NSTAR, including one wire in the area of the Wareham Junior/Senior Cooperative School, Gillette said.

"There were pockets of this town that got hit very, very hard," Gillette said. "I am deeply concerned. ... What was the need to get the kids on the bus? I don't think it was safe."

Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch said he'd had discussions with Wareham Police and other emergency personnel before deciding to open schools.

"It's one of those decisions that I hope I don't have to make that often," said Rabinovitch, whose home also remained without power on Wednesday. "It was a hard call."

Rabinovitch said Cooperative School staff worked to make students aware of the downed wire in the area of the school and kept students away from it.

School Committee member Kenneth Fontes disagreed with Gillette's assessment.

"It's a tough situation," he said. "As far as 'unsafe,' I can't say that I fully agree with that," he added, noting that areas with downed lines were designated with caution tape. Fontes is an NSTAR employee, but stressed that he was not speaking on behalf of the company.

The decision of whether to close schools is made by the superintendent per state law. The School Committee cannot tell him how to make the call.

“I can't get into the micromanaging of decisions made by the superintendent and his staff," Fontes said.

School Committee member Rhonda Veugen said she was satisfied with the superintendent's decision.

“I think that talking with the superintendent ... and knowing that he was in communication with many more people who knew the situation better than I did ... I felt comfortable," she said, a sentiment echoed by other members of the committee.

Some families may be without power until Tuesday.

"I think if we opened on Friday there would still be concerns. If we opened next Monday there would still be concerns,” Veugen noted.

In an effort to help families, Rabinovitch on Wednesday announced that school locker rooms would be open to members of the community who would like to use the facilities to take a hot shower during the before- or after-school hours.

Gillette argued that more should have been done for district families.

"To me, it's too little, too late. The doors should have been open sooner," she said.

All School Committee members agreed that communication between the committee and Rabinovitch should have been better so that the concerns of parents could be relayed to him before he made the decision.

The committee will review storm-related school closing procedures to see if policies can be improved.

"One thing we can be certain of is this will happen again," said School Committee member Geoff Swett. "I think we should put appropriate [storm] policies on the list to review ... to make sure that we apply whatever we learned [this time]."

In other School Committee business:

The School Committee reorganized on August 31 following the decision of Kenneth Fontes to relinquish his chairmanship due to heath concerns and increased responsibilities at his place of employment. Fontes will continue to serve on the School Committee.

School Committee member Geoff Swett was voted chair, while Rhonda Veugen was elected vice-chair. Rachel Gillette remains the committee's secretary.