By Meg Hibbert staff writer
From the January 14, 2004 edition of The New Castle Record
In true Craig County tradition, when adversity hit Monday in the form of broken pipes in the middle school, students and teachers in the elementary school made room for the older children to keep classes going for the day.
Coils that apparently froze and subsequently flooded one portion of the middle school caused school officials to tell middle school students to stay home for the day Tuesday. Meanwhile, officials worked out a plan and spaces to house the older students for Wednesday and the rest of the week so school could go on uninterrupted. The problem and subsequent cleanup should be completed by Friday, the school superintendent said.
New Craig County School Superintendent Dr. Rose Martin- on the job for only five weeks- was impressed by how well students, teachers and staff of the elementary and middle schools worked together Monday.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with. They’re level headed, and they put kids first,” Dr. Martin said, explaining that some classrooms were reallocated to move the 167 middle school students into the elementary school with its 320 students.
“The students did a fantastic job of being flexible,” the superintendent added.
Near-zero temperatures over the weekend apparently were not the culprits. Dr. Martin said. Coils didn’t freeze and burst until Sunday night or early Monday morning when overnight temperatures were the warmest since snow fell and the mercury took a dive Friday.
“The problem was discovered first thing Monday morning,” the superintendent said. “We had people here over the weekend and everything was fine.”
Employees of Southern Air spent the better part f Monday at the school. Southern Air designed and installed heating and air conditioning systems when the middle school was added in2002-2003 academic year. At least twice that first year students were sent home mid-day because of heating problems.
Dr. Martin said she did not know if this week’s problem was related.
“Southern Air is evaluating and investigating to determine the problem,” she explained. “It was only part of the middle school this time: there was water in four classrooms and a study area that had carpeting and our Xerox machine,” she added.
Not knowing the extent of the problem with the heating system, school officials made the decision to move the entire middle school’s students in order to free up the entire area for contractors, she said.
“It wasn’t cold for the students and there was never any danger of electrical in water,” Dr. Matin pointed out.
The decision to double up middle school students with the younger ones was made “so we didn’t have to send kids home with no advance notification to parents,” she said.
Last school year when there were HVAC problems, parents criticized school officials’ decisions to close school after parents were at work and did not know their children were being sent home.
McCleary Elementary School Principal Shirley Woodall said having her students and teachers double up “wasn’t a big sacrifice, really, just a little bit inconvenient.”
She said even though no announcement was made to the public, “A few parents showed up to take their students home if we were going to close school. WE didn’t, and they didn’t take their children.”
Woodall said the elementary school accommodated the middle school students in special spaces such as the library, old cafeteria, art room, music room “and one of the kindergarten rooms for a combined classes for a little while.”
It worked, officials said.
The elementary school principal said when middle school students arrived between8:15 and 8:30 a.m., they were directed into the gym so staff could organize spaces and students.
Dr. Martin said when middle school students return Wednesday, some would have classes in the mobile unit outside.
Insurance agents were also at the middle school Monday looking at water damage and talking to Southern Air representatives, Dr. Martin said.
With a day off school, Friday Jan. 9, school officials are tying to keep students in school as much as possible.
When school opened for the year, two days had been built into the calendar for snow.
After that, days were whittled off spring break.
“We’ve missed five days and are into three days of sprig break already,” Woodall said.
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
From The New Castle Record archives