MARCH 1, 2015
LEVERETT, MASS
Elementary School Principal Margot Lacey said she hopes
students will be back in their regular classrooms later this week after frozen
pipes that burst on Feb. 18 and 24 caused serious damage to walls, ceilings and
flooring.
Lacey was on a backcountry skiing trip in Yellowstone
National Park during February vacation when she learned a sprinkler pipe had
burst in the school Feb. 18, damaging two classrooms used for art and music and
two smaller rooms used for special education. She cut her trip short by a day
and came back to school Feb. 21 to arrange for repairs and to set up other
places for art and music classes before students came back from vacation Feb.
23.
“We came back to school and we thought we were in good shape
and then at 5 a.m. Tuesday, another one burst. But by the time children arrived
at 8:10 a.m., we had relocated those two classrooms,” Lacey said. Since then,
about 90 percent of repairs have been completed, she said.
She said teachers and staff worked hard to keep classes
running smoothly despite the upset. “The kids have been great,” she said.
“They’re working in the library, in the cafeteria, in rooms that aren’t
familiar to them.”
The deluge from the school’s fire suppression system soaked
the ceilings, walls and floors of four classrooms and the two smaller meeting
rooms, but much of the furniture and most of the school supplies were
salvageable, according to Union 28 Interim Superintendent Robert Mahler.
Mahler said that both times, there was someone at the school
to raise the alarm about the burst pipes. “But with a fire suppression system
in a public building, you can’t turn it off,” he noted — only fire officials
can shut off the water.
Neither Mahler nor Lacey knew the estimated cost of the
repairs. Mahler said they will involve replacing insulation, wallboard,
ceilings and carpeting, as well as work on electrical and other systems that
were damaged.
“There’s been some work during school,” Mahler said of the
contractors, who are led by Randall Roberts of Hadley. “But the minute the kids
leave, the place is hopping with contractors. They’re working all weekend and
into the night.”
Lacey said the repairs are mostly complete. Carpeting is
being put in Tuesday, she said, and she hopes students will be back in their
regular classrooms the next day, or by the end of the week at the latest.
Mahler said the fire suppression system engineer who has
been working at the school has assured him that Leverett Elementary School is
not alone in having burst pipes recently.
“He’s telling horror stories of his work all over the
state,” Mahler said. “It’s been a tough winter.”
The engineer has some ideas about things the school can do
to avoid future freezes, Mahler said, though the superintendent said he did not
feel capable of explaining the technical aspects. “Obviously, we need to do
anything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Source: http://www.gazettenet.com/