By Teresa Sargeant
Apopka Chie Staff
The discovery of a water main break at Wolf Lake Middle School caused the shutdown of the air conditioning system at that school and at Wolf Lake Elementary School on Monday, August 22 because water is needed to operate the system’s chillers.
According to both schools’ Master Principal Caroll Grimando, portable restroom stalls and 3,000 water bottles were transported to Wolf Lake Middle School. Fans were also set up in classrooms.
The school system’s automated messages notified parents of the situation.
Wolf Lake Elementary School students were moved from the main building to the air-conditioned portable classrooms.
The water main break was caused by a 3-inch PVC elbow failure that separated from the main line, said Lauren Roth, OCPS facilities communications, via email.
Middle school assistant principals discovered the broken pipe between the gymnasium and portables at the middle school on Monday morning while they did their walkthrough of the campus. The school notified Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) Facilities Maintenance, and technicians were sent to the scene.
The break caused flooding to occur between the portables and the gym, but there was no physical damage to the buildings.
The water line was repaired and air conditioning was back up the night of August 22 at both schools.
While the water was retested, Wolf Lake Middle School students and staff used bottled water for drinking and cooking during the subsequent 48 hours.
Scott Sherrer, a father of one Wolf Lake Elementary School student and one Wolf Lake Middle School student, called the situation “crazy.” As an engineer, he said he knows the air conditioning system’s chiller is computer-operated around the clock, every day. Therefore, any mishaps that occur in the mechanism would set alerts off.
“How this goes through a 24-hour cycle and no one is notified is beyond understanding,” he said.
Wolf Lake Middle School was designed in 2004, built in 2005 and opened in 2006, yet isolation valves, which would have prevented flooding in more than one building, were not incorporated in the school’s infrastructure, said Christine Moore, Orange County School Board member.
She said she would seek to get Wolf Lake Elementary School its own air conditioning system, and thus would propose that the capital renewal fund gets this in place.
Moore commended Grimando on her management of the crisis.
“She did an excellent job thinking the scenario through, trying to accommodate children with special needs, and keeping as many children as cool as possible,” Moore said.
