On Saturday, Jan. 13, a water pipe in the District Office burst, causing extensive flooding and damage to the building. The damage caused the network services across the district to shut down. According to Superintendent Greg Baker, the “Educational Technology team worked through the night and into the early morning to restore both wired and wireless services” by Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Those working at the District Office have been relocated to over fifteen other schools and district buildings while the repairs take place.
Now lacking a centralized workplace, District Communications Officer Dana Smith says that the displaced district employees are finding that “access to files and materials we need can be challenging; and access to people, like colleagues we work with regularly in person, but who now might be miles away, is also tough.”
Luckily, “the new district office is scheduled to open by spring break,” says Smith. So, come April all the district employees should be moving into the new building.
The flooding at the district office isn’t all bad, though. Displaced district employees have had the opportunity to interact with colleagues that they aren’t normally able to, and, in exchange for the inconvenience of not being able to communicate with other displaced employees as easily, they are able to easily communicate with those at the building they’re working from now.
Smith, who has been relocated to Bellingham High School, says that the employees relocated to BHS have “gotten a nice concert from Showstoppers and even a poetry recitation one morning!”
Coincidentally, a pipe burst at BHS around the same time, also causing flooding. Eight classrooms around the small first-floor common area were quartered off, and classes that usually take place in those rooms were relocated to other spaces. Relocated classes move around almost every period, depending on which teachers can lend their rooms during specific time slots.
Sometimes, the moving classes can disrupt students’ learning. An affected student even said that they had to take a test in the library with another class taking place there at the same time.
Overall, the flooding at the District Office and BHS has caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people, and staff across the district have been helping out where they can.
“We especially want to thank the staff who are temporarily moved out of their workspaces or are sharing their space while we’re here, especially Mr. Jacques, Ms. Meza, Mr. Carlson and Mr. Atkins,” says Smith. Hopefully, the flooding and all the related problems will be resolved without issue.
