McKinley Elementary students received an unexpected surprise today — school was canceled.
The basement of the school experienced a hot water pipe break on Sunday, said Brian Pekarek, USD 257 superintendent of schools.
The break was not due to the severe weather but the age of the pipes. “In time, those pipes will break,” Pekarek said. “In order to correct the problem, we needed to shut off all water and electricity to McKinley for Sunday and Monday.”
As of this morning the basement had an inch of water and industrial Shop-Vacs were being used to dry out the floors. Anderson Plumbing evaluated the damages early this morning and started on repairs.
“We are working on getting the leak fixed and getting the rest of the water out of the basement. We are also taking out all the things that got wet,” said Scott Stanley, USD 257 Director of Operations.
Stanley said school should be back up and going Tuesday and doesn’t anticipate any problems or any financial blows due to the break.
Parent-teacher meetings scheduled for today will need to be rescheduled to a later date.
“If for some reason school is canceled tomorrow we will do the same as we did on Sunday, we will call parents and put it out on the radio,” Pekarek said.
Pipe burst closes McKinley
