Imai Elementary School in Mountain View had to close on Wednesday because of a broken water line. On Thursday, August 29, classes started again after the break.
A spokeswoman for the district, Shelly Hausman, said that the school knew something was wrong on Tuesday when they saw sewage and water leaking near the front parking lot.
Hausman said that the school may not have known about the sewer line break for a while because it had been “ongoing for some time.” This could have been caused by work on campus in the past few years.
It was hard to figure out what the problem was and fix it, according to Hausman. The problem was finally fixed early Thursday morning. In the next few days, crews will come back to finish their work, which could include putting in new pipes. There is also a hole in the school’s parking lot that needs to be fixed, and the asphalt needs to be put again.
“We are thankful that the plumbers worked all night to fix it so that the kids could go back to school today,” Hausman wrote in an email. “We’re also grateful to our neighbors who had to put up with the noise of the machinery all night Wednesday.” We are always thankful to our families and staff for being willing to work with us and being patient, even though it’s only the third week of school.
At 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the school district told families that they were working on the problem. By 9:15 p.m., they told them that fixes were taking longer than expected and that there would be no school the next day, Hausman said. Also, back-to-school night was canceled and will happen at a different time, she said.
Staff from the district, the city’s public works department, and plumbers all helped fix things. Hausman said that Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph and the assistant maintenance director for the school both stayed on campus all night Wednesday to keep an eye on things.
The problem was fixed around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, and families were told at 6 a.m. that the school would be open again, Hausman said. The work included using a big truck to clean the line, hauling sewage off campus, and fixing the pipe.