Suburban Chicago middle school to close for "several" weeks after winter storm damage
GRAYSLAKE, Ill. (CBS) – More than 1,000 students in the Grayslake area have been learning from home after two schools suffered damage in the winter weather – in the form of water damage from no heat and broken pipes.
Grayslake Middle School, or GMS, was hit the hardest – and will be closed for several weeks to repair the damage it sustained.
In anticipation of last Friday's snowfall, Community Consolidated School District 46 instituted a remote learning day for its students. The district serves parts of Grayslake, Third Lake, Hainesville, Round Lake, Round Lake Park, Round Lake Beach, and Lake Villa.
After the holiday on Monday, the district said all of its schools, except for Grayslake Middle School, would be ready for onsite learning on Wednesday. There were continued issues with heat and water due to frozen pipes. Students there were forced to continue remote learning through at least Thursday.
On Wednesday, the district said it continued to have "numerous mechanical issues in virtually all our buildings," so students continued remote learning that day.
There were issues with boilers, frozen and burst pipes, and cleanup. At GMS and Frederick School, the problems also impacted the kitchen and food preparation for students.
At issue first at GMS is heat. The school district said boilers are not pushing out the proper heat to make the classrooms warm enough for students.
There are also problems with unit ventilators – and low-digit and below-zero temperatures from last week and earlier this week froze and damaged sprinkler heads.
Students at the other schools were able to return to the classroom on Thursday, except at GMS and Frederick. There were "significant concerns" with the boilers, unit ventilators, and sprinkler heads at GMS. So students there were to continue remote learning for all of this week.
Thus, the return to class from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this past Monday has not happened at all for the close to 600 students at GMS – including Liz Vergin's son.
"I was not expecting COVID vibes after our long weekend," Vergin said.
On Thursday night, some machinery sat in the parking lot of the school – while inside, efforts were under way to get the middle school back up and functioning.
"So fortunately for me, I work at night - so I'm able to help them if they need it," said Vergin. "But the teachers have been great facilitating it. Both my kids are pretty self-sufficient."
District leaders had been hoping after a week of e-learning to get seventh and eighth graders back inside. But now, parents have been told that due to the scope of repairs, contractors will need four to six weeks to get the school fixed – and school will have to be held elsewhere.
"Oh, I feel like, I mean, it's probably too cold to like get access into the schools anyway - right? So it probably was something where they realized it afterwards," said Vergin, "and yeah, bigger than they were probably anticipating, I'd say."
Going forward, the district said it will open "GMS East," meaning it will temporarily hold classes at the University Center of Lake County -- located on the College of Lake County campus, but is a separate entity unaffiliated with the college itself. Thus, more than 600 seventh and eighth graders and teaching staff will report to college next week.
"We had a family meeting about it, and my son was like, 'Hey, I get to go to college,'" Vergin said.
Until the sprinklers and boilers are up and running, "GMS East" at the University Center of Lake County will be the school.
"This is a magnificent facility which is filled with school amenities such as spacious classrooms, a beautiful auditorium, a health center, and a kitchen, all of which will allow onsite learning to continue for students," said Supt. Lynn Glickman in a letter to parents.
Still, she added the district is working through many details like bussing, food service, and class schedule adjustments.
"I mean, and them go getting to like go to college for four to six weeks, like, I think that's kind of cool," Vergin said.
At the Frederick School – while there are similar issues with a frozen fire sprinkler system and boilers not kicking out enough heat – the problems are expected to be fixed much sooner than the four to six weeks estimated for the middle school. Vergin's daughter attends the Frederick School, so she has her hands full at more than one facility.
Friday afternoon, Frederick administrators announced all necessary repairs had been completed at that school, and the building would be able to reopen for onsite learning on Monday.
