Teachers in the Elbert County School District (ECSD) returned to school Tuesday, just over a week after freezing temperatures caused pipes to burst and flood 95 percent of the building at Elbert County Middle School (ECMS).
With students expected to return to classes Thursday, Superintendent Jon Jarvis said Dec. 31 that some classes at ECMS will be adjusted due to ongoing carpet and tile replacements.
“Right now they are going to focus on the carpet areas and try to get the carpet replaced over the next several weeks and hopefully be finished during the week off in February,” Jarvis said in the Dec. 31 email to ECSD staff. “I realize this is an inconvenience, but they have promised to move this process along as fast as possible. They will have to secure the product and a company that can come in to lay the carpet.”
Jarvis also said the restoration company will replace all tile that “that we are seeing come up” during the summer, but that the replacement “could also be all the rooms in the school.”
“We will know more over the next two months based on whether more start coming up. But there is no way to replace all of this tile while we have students attending class,” Jarvis said. “They will, however, put temporary tiles in where the tiles are already coming. They also may take some classes and retile them during our winter and spring break - but we will plan that soon.”
The carpet in the ECMS auditorium, library and other classrooms, including the band and chorus rooms, was taken up when teachers returned Tuesday, with some rooms having plastic layed out on the floor over the glue.
The gym floor was still being dried out in order to remove the moisture from the wood as of Tuesday, and Jarvis said Dec. 27 that the floor “may need to be replaced.”
“The company does plan on getting the glue in the auditorium off the concrete in order to have PE in there while we are waiting on the gym floor to be repaired,” Jarvis said. “ There is a chance the gym floor will be finished by the end of January if it can be repaired (if replaced - it will be a while before we can use it).”
Jarvis said Dec. 26 that he was notified around 5:38 p.m. Christmas Day that “there was water standing in the middle school.” After arriving at ECMS, Jarvis said he found nearly one to two inches of water “in 95 percent of the school” due to busted pipes.
“We immediately called our insurance company and had a restoration team in the school on Christmas night to start assessing and removing the water to dry out the school,” Jarvis said Monday morning in an email to school district employees.
Jarvis said all classrooms, including the gym, auditorium and library at ECMS had standing water, but two classrooms also had ceiling damage.
In a second update Dec. 26, Jarvis said progress had been made with drying out the school and that “over 40 people,” plus “several district employees” had been working with the restoration company.