Ann Arbor's Forsythe Middle School flooded after pool valve left open, but no major damage expected
Ann Arbor's Forsythe Middle School experienced flooding over the weekend after the fill valve for the school’s pool was left running, dumping 6 feet of water into the boiler room, a school official said.
Randy Trent, executive director of physical properties for the Ann Arbor school district, said the pool overflowed, and the water spread into other areas of the school. He said the boiler room was filled and hallways near the pool had about a quarter-inch of water on the floor.
Trent said the flood was cleaned up before registration at the school on Monday, and no major damage is thought to have occurred. He said the affected areas will have to dry out before a precise damage assessment can be made.
“There’s nothing overly major that will affect school in any way,” he said today.
Trent said some buckling occurred in spots of the gymnasium floor, and some of the edges of tiles in the cafeteria floor were coming up. He said the building was air conditioned during Monday’s registration activities after a board on the control system was replaced.
Trent said the domestic hot water heater is up and running with no problems, and any boiler issues will be solved.
Some of the occurrences during the flooding amazed Trent, such as the continued running of the school’s air compressor while the boiler room was flooded.
“The air compressor ran the whole time under 6 feet of water,” he said. “You would think most of the stuff wouldn’t be running, but it ran the entire time.”
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com.
Comments
YpsiLivin
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:40 p.m.
Kathryn Hahn said: What's wrong with pools? You mean aside from the "expensive to maintain," "huge liability" and "serves no educational purpose" parts? avida2reader: There are lots of opportunities outside of both private lessons and public schooling to learn to swim. It's not a responsibility that the public school system should have to (or volunteer to) take on.
YpsiLivin
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 4:36 p.m.
Kathryn Hahn said: What's wrong with pools? You mean aside from the "expensive to maintain," "huge liability" and "serves no educational purpose" parts? avida2reader: There are lots of opportunities outside of both private lessons and public schooling to learn to swim. It's not a responsibility that the public school system should have to (or volunteer to) take on.
avida2reader
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 2:57 p.m.
Learning to swim is a life survival skill that not everyone has the $ to afford to learn in private lessons so learning to swim in a public school is a good thing. Geez.
KathrynHahn
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 4:54 a.m.
@Ypsilivin "So, never having attended any schools that had swimming pools (until I went to college), I'm hard pressed to understand the rationale for even having a swimming pool in a school." So sorry you never got to enjoy swimming as part of your Phys. Ed. Forsythe Middle school has a pool, Pioneer High school has a pool, Mack elementary has a pool... and those are just the few I know about having swam in them. I'm willing to bet the new Skyline High has one too. What's wrong with pools?
Ann English
Wed, Sep 1, 2010 : 7:05 p.m.
I'm glad nothing like that happened while I swam at that pool for phys. ed. class. Sounds like the gym annex and entrance hall must have been flooded too. They're between the cafeteria and gymnasium. At this time of year, I would have expected the pool to be empty. Was it used for special classes during the summer, or does school start next week so they're getting the pool ready?
Somewhat Concerned
Wed, Sep 1, 2010 : 8:52 a.m.
It's Michigan, so the person responsible belongs to a union that will threaten a strike if it doesn't get raises for people who forget to turn off the faucet and go do something else, like smoke a cigarette or watch tv or spend an hour on their cell phone talking to their brother-in-law about going hunting. And, the school board will want a tax increase to pay for the costs of swimming pools and floods and pay increases for guys who forget to turn off faucets.
YpsiLivin
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 9:53 p.m.
So, never having attended any schools that had swimming pools (until I went to college), I'm hard pressed to understand the rationale for even having a swimming pool in a school. Besides being a huge liability, swimming pools are incredibly expensive to maintain and meet no educational requirements that couldn't be met in some other way and at a lower cost. In this case, it sounds like the school's heating plant, the gymnasium floor and the cafeteria floors have all been damaged. I suppose it's possible that the school is now also at risk for mold problems. I'm pretty sure that whatever alleged value the pool adds to the school isn't worth this.
heresmine
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 8:23 p.m.
On who's behalf will there be a grievance? The air compressor because all the other mechanical systems took a breather or bath or something?
treetowncartel
Tue, Aug 31, 2010 : 3:57 p.m.
I see a grievance being filed in the near future.