Blog

Nov 18, 2023

Boiler Fix Will Get Schools Back to Class

By Staff | on November 24, 2022

By Staff | on November 24, 2022

Sofi Natvig, left, and her mom, OSSD food services director Sarah Natvig, load up bags full of food Friday for students and community members during the closure of RUHS and RTCC. (Herald / Kyan Smith)

A week ago, it looked like Randolph Union High School and Randolph Technical Career Center would remain empty buildings until sometime in January, but thanks to a little persistence and flexibility, RTCC classes were able to resume Monday and RUHS aims to have students back in the building by December 5.

In a missive to parents, faculty, and staff on the evening of November 11, Orange Southwest School District Superintendent Layne Millington reported that a main heating pipe had failed between the two schools’ shared boiler and the building, leaving both schools without any heat or hot water just as temperatures began to dip.

Work crews had to dig into part of the parking lot behind RTCC and into the foundation of a utility building to access the damage and discovered that the parts required for repair would be difficult to come by. At the time, administrators estimated they wouldn't be able to bring students back to the buildings until as far out as mid-January or beyond and, in fact, plans were kicked off to begin classes in other locations scattered around the White River Valley.

Then, just as suddenly, those plans changed again.

"We were pretty ready to run school on the 28th and get teachers’ minds wrapped around what they were going to need to do and do an orientation day for students at their new campuses," said RUHS co-principal Lisa Floyd. "We’re fortunate in that, having gone through a pandemic, we’re flexible in our thinking in how to move students in creative ways and how to schedule creatively."

Her co-principal Caty Sutton added that despite, the efforts of staff members including Michelle Holder, Kara Merrill, and Tina Schiendel to get schedules and technology ready for students, moving classes to far flung sites "wouldn't have been a small undertaking."

One example, she pointed to is accessibility technology required for students with disabilities that would need to be set up wherever classes would be held. "That's a really nuts-and-bolts legal requirement," she said. Looking around the building on Tuesday afternoon, Floyd described a patchwork of various types of space heaters installed throughout the hallways, classroom doors all open wide to ensure what heat is available could spread through the building and avoid any damage from freezing temperatures.

Though the maintenance staff has been able to keep temperatures at functional levels, the temporary heating devices aren't enough to keep the edifice at the 65 degrees required for occupancy.

At RTCC, the heating situation wasn't quite as bad, said director Felicia Allard.

"We were fortunate to find out that our section of the building was holding the heat better than the high school side," she said.

Because that wing of the building was added about a decade later, parts of it were designed with an electric heating system that was left in place over the years.

The front office was able to benefit from that, though the system wasn't robust enough to provide heat to most of the wing.

Despite that, the technical school was able to re-commence classes on Monday, students working with their classes at various sites off campus.

Four construction-focused programs spent Monday and Tuesday in Montpelier for OSHA trainings, culinary students were able to help out in the school's cafeteria where food services director Sarah Natvig was hard at work putting together meals for students to pick up, education services was at the elementary school working with young students there, and the manufacturing and fabrication program spent the days at KAD Models and Prototypes, the East Randolph business owned by their instructor. Several students were also off campus at various businesses working at internships.

"If we had a plumbing program, this would have been a great learning experience," Allard acknowledged of the boiler troubles. "I think the lesson is just, when you’re career-focused, the opportunities to integrate into the world of work are there," she added.

Sutton and Floyd noted the support they’d received from businesses and community members looking to help solve the logistics problems they faced.

"A lot of the problem solving approaches … in the COVID-era are no longer available to us," Sutton noted, adding that nonetheless the neighboring White River Valley Supervisory Union, Vermont Technical College, and even the Randolph Village Fire Department had all been ready to lend a hand.

Some of that help will still be necessary, Floyd added. The winter sports season is slated to start next week with practices for basketball, gymnastics, and wrestling, none of which will be able to take place at the high school yet.

In the meantime, basketball teams will begin practices at the White River Valley Middle School gym in Bethel on Monday. The wrestling team will be able to start practices at the village firehouse, and the gymnastics squad found space at Motio Rec.

"Once we’re back in the building, we’ll be back to our regular routines," Floyd said, but noted that the Vermont Principals’ Association requires that teams hold at least 10 practices before competition begins.

The other major worry staff at the schools had was feeding students. Some families rely on the free or reduced-price lunches schools provide and efforts were made to ensure that resource was still available.

A program at RTCC started by counselor Colin Andrzejczyk and Innovation Center director Jason Findley called "Food for Thought" takes in donations to provide groceries to families in need and they were able to deliver bags of food to students during the closure.

New food services director Sarah Natvig also found a way to keep kids fed. Though federal funds used for school lunch require that meals are served in congregate settings, Natvig and OSSD's assistant superintendent Heather Lawler worked to find a way to make use of food in the schools’ fridges to hand out meals over the past week.

According to administrators, through the diligence of the district's maintenance crews, the parts were located to make repairs on the buildings’ boilers after Thanksgiving.

RTCC will be back at school on Monday and RUHS plans to be back in session the following week once heat and hot water are restored.

Because the Vermont Agency of Education requires 175 student days in school each year, it is likely that the time out of session will need to be made up somewhere. How that will happen remains an open question, Floyd and Sutton said.

"People have reached out from other schools," Floyd said and pointed out that "we have an aging school infrastructure in our state. This has happened to us right, but there are definitely other schools … that will face these things," she added.

"I think it's really important for groups like the Agency of Education to think about how we can educate students… when they face these challenges."