Moretown Elementary students return without their school
December 19, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti Students and teachers at Moretown Elementary School will finish out the week together – but they won’t be using their school until after the holiday break.
Flooded hallway. Photos courtesy Moretown Elementary School
Flooded entry corridor. Courtesy photo
A flooded classroom. Courtesy photo
That’s the word from administrators at the Harwood Unified Union School District who scrambled Monday to deal with the Moretown school facility flooding and then on Tuesday to figure out a plan for the rest of the week for the school’s 170 preschoolers through sixth graders.
The school district announced Tuesday afternoon that students in all of the schools will return on Wednesday after being dismissed early on Monday due to the storm and flooding, and then having school canceled on Tuesday. But Moretown students will be operating on a different plan than the rest of the district this week.
“Moretown is a community and not a building, so we have explored numerous options to have our school community back together as quickly as possible,” Superintendent Mike Leichliter said in a message to local news media on Tuesday afternoon. “While we cannot utilize the building for the remainder of the week, we are now prepared to welcome students back together with some creative modifications.”
The modifications involve K-6 students arriving and leaving from their school but spending Wednesday and Thursday on field trips to Montshire Museum and North Branch Nature Center. Friday is an early dismissal day before the holiday break. Moretown students will be treated to movies in the Harwood auditorium on Friday before a late-morning dismissal, he said. Preschool trips will be closer to school at the town library and the school’s Eco camp sites.
The plan came together quickly on Tuesday. “It was important to all to make sure that students have a chance to be together before the break and have the fun experiences we usually have the week before the break, but in different ways/settings,” Leichliter explained.
School leaders brainstormed and made calls on a variety of options before settling on the field trip plan. “There was a lot of positivity around the idea,” said Principal Kate Liptak. “It mimics what they did after Irene.”
Moretown Elementary was flooded in Tropical Storm Irene just before the 2011-12 school year began. Classes then used field trips as well as outdoor tents for classrooms while the school was restored for use.
On Monday, floodwaters from the Mad River once again quickly spread across the school grounds and into the building’s first floor classrooms and lower level boiler room. State Assistant Fire Marshall Stanley Baranowski on site on Tuesday told school officials that the school was the largest public building in the state to his knowledge to experience flooding this week, Leichliter said.
Flooding in the basement at Moretown Elementary where building equipment such as the furnace is located. Courtesy photo
“Our main level sustained a few inches of water in most of the classrooms and our biggest loss was the three feet of water that entered into our boiler room,” he said. “We have ordered new electrical parts for the furnace as well as burners, but this will not be available until after the break at the earliest.”
Temporary heating has been put in place already that could be used during the cleanup and when classes resume if necessary. Asked about cleanup and repair costs, Leichliter said it’s too early to have an estimate yet. The school district has begun work with its insurer and could potentially file a claim with the Federal Emergency Management Agency if FEMA is involved with the flood recovery response.
School leaders notified Moretown students’ families about the plan for Wednesday-Friday’s schedule in a memo emailed Tuesday afternoon and posted on the school’s online newsletter, Bobcat Bulletin.