LISBON – Superintendent Shannon Welsh said that water damage caused when heating pipes burst at Philip W. Sugg Middle School will be repaired in time for classes next Monday when school resumes after vacation.
Students will be able to return to a “safe, healthy school” then, Welsh said. They got an unexpected extra week of vacation due to pipes bursting at the school a week ago, but the downside is they will be have to make up the lost days at the end of the school year.
Welsh said she understands that “it’s been difficult for families to have children home” for a week before this week’s regular school vacation. She said, “We appreciate the support of the community during this time.”
The school has been closed since Feb. 14 due to extensive damage caused when two heating pipes froze and burst during a power outage. The school had been closed Thursday and Friday, Feb. 10 and 11, due to a snowstorm; the water break was not discovered until early Sunday afternoon on Feb. 13.
By that time water had accumulated to a depth of nearly 2 feet, damaging walls, asbestos floor tiles and other materials. Air quality tests have been conducted since water had seeped into the walls, and an abatement team was hired to remove and replace floor tiles, with “no surprises” found, Welsh said.
An insurance adjuster has surveyed the damage, Welsh said, but she still does not know the total cost for the repairs.
Industrial-type heaters were utilized to hasten drying. The plans call for replacing walls to a height of 32-inches, she said. Once all repairs have been completed, additional air quality tests will be conducted to make sure there is no mold.
At first, the 200-plus seventh- and eighth-graders will probably be housed in the former sixth-grade wing of the school, which was vacated when those students were transferred to the new Community School, she said. Since the sixth-graders left, those rooms have been used for health classes, art and music.
Comments are no longer available on this story