A water pipe break at Bowling Green High School over Christmas break has caused an estimated $50,000 in damage.
The pipe in a sink in the second-floor art room burst sometime on Dec. 25, it was reported at the Thursday board of education workshop.
Water poured through the floor into the high school office below and was actually running out the front door when it was discovered, according to Superintendent Francis Scruci.
A counselor stopped by the school on Dec. 26 to get some paperwork and found the first-floor hallways flooded, he said.
“The entire office was damaged,” Scruci said, and estimated there was an inch of water on the floor.
Water had started flowing down the math and science hallway and out the front door of the building, he said.
Custodians were called in to find where the leak was, turn off the water and start the cleanup.
“Had someone had not come in the next day, the whole building would have been under water,” Scruci said.
A professional cleaning crew was brought it to dry out the building, he said.
The cost of cleanup was around $20,000.
One-third of the book store inventory was ruined, and the cost of replacing that is unknown, Scruci said.
Furniture, ceiling tile and lights, and carpet will have to be replaced at an estimated cost of another $20,000 to $30,000.
“It’s consistent with what we’ve been saying,” Scruci said about the campaign to replace the high school, which was built in 1963.
“You can’t just slap a fresh coat of paint on these buildings and make it better,” Scruci.
Voters in November did not support a bond issue to replace and refurbish the high school. The school board on Thursday held a work session to discuss to potential to return with a similar request this November.
