Ionia middle school remains closed after flood

Feb. 04--IONIA -- After five consecutive snow days from near-constant snow and frigid temperatures last week, Ionia Public School students and staff were set to return to the classroom Monday morning.

A pipe in the main middle school boiler room dashed those plans, however, when it froze and burst sometime over the weekend, leaving over five feet of water in the room. As a result, Ionia canceled school again Monday and Tuesday, making it 11 consecutive days off -- including weekends -- for the district.

"We had a two-inch water line that froze and burst," Ionia Superintendent Ron Wilson said. "It put almost 40,000 gallons of water into that room, which is like a basement. We were able to shut (the line) off, we drained it and the mechanical contractors are in there trying to figure out if we're going to be able to get (the boiler system) up and running.

"There are two boilers in that room. It took both boilers down. It took our water heater down. It's pretty catastrophic. All the electrical panels that service those boilers and pumps were all submerged. We've had things that shorted -- it's a mess," Wilson said.

Wilson said all schools in the district got the day off because, without the approximately 700 students in the middle school, there wouldn't have been enough students in school to reach 75 percent attendance district-wide, meaning the day would've been made up at the end of the year anyway.

"About 24 percent of the kids in the district attend that school," Wilson said. "We would have to have near-perfect attendance in all other buildings if we didn't run the middle school."

At 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, Wilson sent an email announcing that schools would be closed Tuesday as well, since the issue wouldn't be resolved until at least Tuesday afternoon.

"Right now, it doesn't look real promising (for school on Tuesday)," Wilson said, prior to the announcement. "We're looking at the possibility if it were for a long period of time to having the middle school classes attend the high school.

"We have a wing of the high school that's largely unused where MCC used to have a lot of classes. We could make that adjustment, but even that's going to take some time and planning. Probably Wednesday would be the soonest we could make that happen."

The days off will be lumped in with all other unexpected closure days due to weather, putting Ionia at 12 for the school year, including Tuesday. That's well over the six traditionally allowed by the state, with a good chunk of winter remaining. The state is expected to grant an extra three-day waiver, bringing the allowed total to nine before schools are required to make up days if approved.

"As it stands right now, we have to make up two days (three after the announcement of no school on Tuesday)," Wilson said. "That's assuming the state doesn't allow any additional days (beyond the waiver) because of bad weather."

Wilson said some of the equipment affected by the flooding was set to be replaced as part of a project to upgrade the boiler system and water line at the middle school over the next two summers. He also said that no classrooms were impacted by the flooding and, thanks to insurance coverage, there shouldn't be much of a financial impact to the district.

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