Domino Effect
Contractors dig at the site of the flood. While doing exploratory excavating to locate a leak, a water main malfunction caused school to be dismissed early on Friday, Aug. 21
August 25, 2009 • Roseana Cruz-Kirgis
Filed under News
Walking into the buildingFriday morning, students felt smothered by a heat wave that many agree was more extreme than the Arizona summer that they just had left. Air conditioning was shut down for the whole school while maintenance searched for the source of a faulty pipe.
“The cause of the water leak was due to an exploratory excavation to locate an underground leak in the closed loop [air conditioning],” said Plant Foreman Tony Payan, who oversees maintenance for the school.
So while cutting concrete in search for a leak, a water main hit caused an additional rupture. This second glitch prompted the system shutdown.
Inevitably, the effect on learning was severe.
“It was somewhat hard to focus on what the teacher was telling us because I had to use my folderas a fan,” said Abhi Umashankar, junior. “Everyone in my class [was]doing it.”
Indeed, a peek inside any one classroom that day would have revealed at least several people, whether fanning themselves or not, far too uncomfortable to concentrate on academics. So it was to the relief of hundreds of sweating students, that school would be dismissed early.
As the news spread, a dance of frantic phone calls began among staff members,especially coaches; as team practices were some of the main events that needed rescheduling. Head cheerleading coach, Kris Rademacher, felt pressure to reorganize the cheer squad’s stunt camp without postponing it.
“It was very hectic on Friday,” said Rademacher. “To change everybody’s schedules is impossible because everyone has something going on.”
Rather than test the flexibility of her campers’ agendas, Rademacher decided to change the site of the event to nearby Akimel A-al Middle School. With the help of Activities Director Tomika Bethea and some additional phone calls, five college instructors and all 52 cheerleaders were able to pick up their mats and relocate rather smoothly.
The mechanical repairs seem to be going over well also.
“We repressured the system,” said Payan. “The domestic waterline [drinking water] was repaired.”
Though repairs arestill in progress outside the cafeteria, at least the air is up and running once again.
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