MINOT – A crisis at the Minot Consolidated School has given students and teachers an early start on their holiday vacation.

A failed well prompted school officials to cancel school Wednesday due to lack of water. No water means no school lunches and no use of bathrooms for the approximately 300 kindergarten through eighth-grade students. It also may mean between $5,000 and $20,000 in unbudgeted expenditures to resolve the problem, said school Principal Don Bilodeau.

Officials confirmed that there will be no school Thursday or Friday.

“This has really created a crisis for the school,” said Bilodeau. “We’re taking one day at a time, but there’s not too much hope for finishing out the week.”

Despite cancellation announcements broadcast Wednesday morning, a few students hadn’t gotten the word and stood waiting for buses. The school office received about 20 telephone calls, and about 20 students showed up for school, Bilodeau said.

“I was waiting with my boys for the bus so that I could go to work,” said Tina Lowell, parent of two students. “I thought the bus was late. But then a neighbor told me there was no school.” Lowell said she had to find a sitter at the last minute before going to work in Lewiston.

Teacher Cheryl Logan said the she knew about the cancellation Tuesday night. Logan said she wasn’t surprised because lunch was served on paper trays earlier that day.

“This really messes things up,” said Logan.

Students had been sent home early last Friday because of lack of water. School was canceled Monday due to snow, and resumed on Tuesday. However, failing water pressure barely made it possible to finish out the day on Tuesday, said Bilodeau. He added that later Tuesday, grit was becoming visible in the water, which was unsafe for public use.

“The plan is to have safe and sufficient water for the children and to have it all done before the end of the holiday break,” said Bilodeau.

The school’s 50-year-old well is 220 feet deep and normally pumps 20 gallons per minute. By Friday, the pump was down to 10 gallons a minute, said Bilodeau. The problem was originally thought to be a failed pump caused by a power surge during last week’s high winds and heavy rains and snow. However, the problem has become more complicated and will probably mean putting in a new well, said Union 29 Assistant Superintendent Bill Doughty. Bilodeau said that putting in a new well could take one to three days.

“We’ve got a well-driller and someone from the state out there now,” Doughty said Wednesday afternoon.

Experts guessed that perhaps the combination of a power surge and draining the well below normal levels once it was turned back on may have caused the well to collapse on itself, said Doughty.

The Minot school scheduled five snow days for the 2003-04 year. After this week, all five will have been used with only one of those days actually prompted by snow. Any additional cancellations will have to be made up at the end of the school year, slated for June 15. However, Doughty said that on rare occasions the state education commissioner will issue a waiver for calendar days.

School officials are also looking to the state and other sources for funding to pay for a new well, said Doughty. Without help the money will have to come out of the school’s budget for the coming year, he said.

The school committee will need to review our decisions and our options, said Bilodeau. The committee is scheduled to meet regularly on Dec. 23. However, efforts were being made late Wednesday to schedule an emergency meeting, said Doughty.

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