For many, Christmas day was a time to spend with family and enjoy the day off from school, but FHC administrators and custodians spent their time cleaning up water. After a week of bipolar weather, the quick shift from below freezing to spring time weather caused pipes in the guidance office to break open.

The first of two pipes was luckily part of the sprinkler system, quickly alerting fire and administrators that something was going wrong in the school. The second pipe would soon break a few days later near the auditorium entrance. When Dr. Suzanne Leake and others arrived for both cases, it was clear that some renovotation would be needed. 

  “We extracted all of the carpets, dried everything out and then put carpet back in,” Leake said, “We also had to clean the walls where water had come down and then replace the ceiling tiles.” 

Once everything was given the all clear, the support staff and counselors affected by the water were allowed back in to reorganize or fix up their offices. Nicholas Beckmann, one of the government teachers, was coincidentally at the school when everything happened. Beckmann was one of many to help save people’s personal belongings from the water.

  “Except for the one room where it happened, a lot of people’s stuff was salvageable,” Beckmann said, “I give kudos to the people who were helping out.”  

Thankfully the water in guidance was able to be easily stopped, but the pipe near the auditorium caused some concerns as it had burst from the side rather than an end cap.

  “We were just thinking ‘please don’t let this water get to the gym floor’. The water would have caused the floor to buckle, and we had just gotten the floor resurfaced,” Leake said. 

The administration’s quick thinking avoided that scenario by using the squeegees that are typically used for our tennis courts. They pushed the remaining water out of the building before beginning to dry out the area.. 

Our building was fourth in the district to have these pipe related issues but Servpro, a cleanup company hired by the district, was able to quickly dry everything and get our school back into shape for the new year. We’d like to thank the custodial staff, the administrator,  and some of their children for coming in on Christmas to help with the damage.