Things got off to a rocky start this year for Chester-Andover Elementary School, after a water main leak flooded the building just before school opened. Now about 240 displaced elementary students are spending their days learning at the local high school.
After the flood, the students in grades two through six were moved to Green Mountain Union High School, while the kindergarten and first grade classes were held at the nearby Chester Baptist Church.
But last week an air quality test at the church detected mold, and so now all of the elementary school students are at Green Mountain Union High School.
“This has been a disruption for him,” said Jill Bruning, about her six-year-old son Erik. “It’s very clear to me that the best place for all this is, you know, for people to be at the elementary school. It’s not ideal. He’s doing well, but it’s not ideal. I can tell it’s taking its toll.”
Bruning said school was cancelled two days last week after the mold was detected in the church and administrators had to scramble to find a place for the elementary students.
“The teachers have had to move their classrooms twice now,” Bruning said. “It’s been hard for everybody, but everyone is working together and people have had to respond really quickly.”
With the addition of the younger grades now at the high school, Two Rivers Supervisory Union Superintendent Meg Alison Powden said the high school is pretty much at capacity.
“The teachers and staff have been great. Everyone has been working together,” Powden said. “It has been challenging, but our high school teachers have been shifting their classrooms to make sure all our students are together. It’s been a collaborative effort to make it all work.”
She said parents and community members helped move equipment up to the high school.
"The teachers have had to move their classrooms twice now. It's been hard for everybody, but everyone is working together, and people have had to respond really quickly." — Jill Bruning, parent of a Chester-Andover Elementary student
Chester-Andover was part of an Act 46 merger, and so the damage at the school will be addressed by the new board, which includes representatives from the nearby towns of Cavendish and Baltimore.
Powden said the crisis will test the new board’s commitment to accepting the consolidated district as a single school community.
“I’m going from the mindset we’re one district, we’re one budget,” she said. “We do the work that needs to happen to open our schools and make sure they’re good, safe learning environments.”
Powden said insurance should cover all of the damage inside the building, but that the district will have to come up with about $80,000 to pay for water lines in front of the building.
The work could go into late October, and Powden said the district is seeking out some state help to cover expenses.
