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Classes continue at GMS despite weekend flooding
The Greencastle Middle School security camera footage may be grainy, but according to Principal Shawn Wooden there was no mistaking the moment that the weather took a turn for the worse to cause flooding and temporary closure of four classrooms on the north side of the school Saturday.
"The amount of light that was there at 4:50 p.m., then at 5 p.m. it was almost like it was nighttime," Wooden said after viewing the security camera footage.
The National Weather Service reports that 2.73 inches of rain fell Saturday evening, causing water to pool and eventually seep in through the doorways on the north end of the school.
The flooded school was discovered by a faculty member who had gone in to work on the weekend.
Once the flooding was discovered, Wooden was reached and from there phone calls went out to school maintenance.
"We quickly responded on both the maintenance and the educational side," Wooden explained.
"Maintenance was working within the hour, initial cleanup was done in two-and-a-half hours."
No electronics or curriculum information was damaged but the issue at hand for the school remains the wet carpet in the classrooms.
"When carpet gets wet you have to be really careful," Wooden said explaining that he is more than satisfied with the way in which everybody at school has responded quickly and have remained flexible throughout the week.
Classrooms are like a second home for teachers, it is where they have arranged, decorated and organized all the materials needed throughout the day to be effective at their job and abrupt changes to a teaching environment can be quite jarring, Wooden explained.
Given the drastic change, Wooden commended the teachers for "remaining flexible and fluid to make sure kids' learning opportunities are not messed up or not conducive," and "being great about getting it done and doing it right."
At the moment, the teachers and students affected by the temporary classroom closures have been set up in alternate classrooms or computer labs and have been able to keep their existing schedules and stay focused on the curriculum.
"(There have been) No schedule changes, just location changes. Same teacher, same content, they're just not going to those rooms,"
Wooden said.
"We are stable. You'd be surprised how we're moving along."
The extent and potential cost of the damage is still being assessed but using the security surveillance footage, the school was able to determine that the flood was not due to a failure of equipment so much as an extreme weather event.
"It validated that it wasn't a leak or anything, it was just a freak occurrence," Wooden said after viewing the video footage.
And while the school awaits further information regarding when the classrooms will be open to instruction again, the students and staff at GMS will continue as if nothing happened, as if school must go on because indeed, it must.
No cancellations or change of time for any classes have been needed in response to
the flooding.
The quick work of the staff of GMS ensured that only the place of learning will required alteration, not the act of learning itself.
"The kids are safe, they're in a good spot. We're all right, we're functioning, we have a great, stable transition plan until we get more answers," Wooden confirmed.
Regardless of the temporary closures, and perhaps to the dismay of middle school students across Greencastle, classes will continue to begin promptly at 9 a.m. on Mondays and 8:30 a.m. Tuesday through Friday.