July 26, 2022
Good Afternoon,
As many of you know, the Ridgeview area was impacted by strong storms on Saturday. During the course of the storm the Ridgeview school building sustained significant water damage. I wanted to update you all on what occurred and what is now taking place.
The basement area of the building houses most of the high school classrooms. Sitting just below the basement is a boiler room which houses multiple mechanicals - boilers, a water heater, the fire alarm panel, and a large electrical panel. Some of these mechanicals service the entire building. During the storm, a substantial amount of water infiltrated and filled this room, and overflowed into the hallway and classrooms in the basement. The greatest impact was water submerging many of the mechanicals housed in this lower portion of the basement.
At this point, all systems housed in this portion of the building have been shut down until they can be inspected. Here is what this means:
Power is off to a substantial portion of the building. The main impact is the original 1951 portion of the building which houses most of the junior high and high school classes, offices, and our network equipment.
The fire alarm panel is off-line. Because of this, we cannot occupy the building.
Step-boiler and domestic water heater needed for food preparation is off-line.
I understand many questions come up when situations like this occur. The biggest one so far being - “Will this delay or impact the start of school?” At this point every effort is being taken to prevent that from occurring. Once this equipment is inspected, we will have a better understanding of what needs to be repaired or replaced, and timelines to do so. Multiple service providers are involved to get the building cleaned, serviced, and back to operational as quickly as possible.
I realize that sharing this information can raise more questions than answers. Therefore, I will provide an update by next Tuesday on the current state of the building. Until then, I ask for your continued patience and understanding as we work through getting this situation resolved.
Thank you for your support of Ridgeview Schools!
Mr. Young