Over Homecoming weekend, a pipe to a water heater broke at Alton High School. It was discovered on the morning of Oct. 16 by administrators, who arrived at school around 6:30 a.m.
Students arriving for Early Bird classes had to wait a couple minutes after the 7:40 a.m. entry time due to flooding in Todd Haug’s room. No other Early Bird classes were impacted.
However, about 200 students had to switch to the gym during their advisory period. The original plan was, if the 14 classrooms impacted by the leak remained flooded, students would go to a different classroom for that period. Students did have to spend their 1st hour in a different classroom, but were back on their usual schedule by their 2nd hour.
Family and consumer science teacher Jennifer Austin’s classroom was especially hit hard. Her classroom has a lot of expensive and delicate equipment that was affected by the water. “I’ve tried to not let the flooding affect my productivity,” Austin said. “I do think the school should have someone look over things on the weekends before people come back. I don’t think it could’ve been avoided, it’s just one of those accidents.”
The leak affected administrators as much as teachers and students. Their work schedule was thrown off due to having to direct classes and move students around. Assistant Principal Vernon Curvey said, “We had to work on re-arranging classes so it threw off what we usually had to do in the morning. Everything is fine now, though.”
The school managed to bounce back very quickly despite the watery odds. The nearly 200 students returned to regular classrooms during their 2nd hour.
