February 3, 2014 at 9:07 a.m.
Boiler problem closes Central Intermediate School Monday
Boiler problem closes Central Intermediate School Monday
Central Intermediate School in Rhinelander was closed Monday due to a problem with the school's boilers.
According to School District of Rhinelander Superintendent Kelli Jacobi, the school lost power at some point on Sunday. When power was restored, the boilers did not switch back on, causing the school's internal temperature to drop.
"We lost power at Central (Sunday). The power did come back on, but when it came back on the boilers didn't start back up," Jacobi said. "(Supervisor of plant operations) Jeff (Zdroik) is working with WPS (Wisconsin Public Service) and others on the boilers (Monday) morning. They were hopeful that they will be back up and running by early afternoon, but not soon enough to have the kids start today. It was in the low 50s inside. We can't have kids in there at that temperature."
Jacobi said there is no specific problem with the boilers, it's just that they didn't switch back on once power was restored. The district does not know why the power went out. Jacobi said she would be working with Zdroik to determine what caused the outage.
"They're not bad boilers, that's not the problem," Jacobi said. "It's not that the boilers aren't working, it's that there was a problem in the communication piece between the power going out, coming back on and the boilers. They're working fine, it's whatever that piece was in the middle."
The usual procedure when there is a school closure is for the district to put an announcement up on its website but that didn't happen Monday.
"They knew that there was no heat when maintenance went to check on the building early this morning - around 6:15 a.m. We got (the news of the closing) out there as soon as we could (Monday) morning," Jacobi said. "I couldn't get ahold of the person that does our website work, so we got it on the TV and radio and tried to reach out to parents, and we have to come up with an internal plan to get it up on the website."
As a result of the delayed announcement, some students showed up for school. Jacobi said they were attended to by staff while they waited for their parents to pick them up.
"I have been in contact with (principal) Tim (Howell) and he said there were less than a dozen (students who showed up for school). They were working on contacting parents and getting kids picked up," Jacobi said.
Rhinelander students have missed a fair amount of instruction time this year due to weather and illness-related school closures.
Those days will have to be made up but Jacobi said it's unclear if Central students will have to make up the time missed Monday. She said the district would be communicating with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to find out for sure.
"We don't know yet. We will be contacting the Department of Public Instruction, trying to get in touch with them to figure out the plan - do we have to make it up, will they count the additional minutes that were added to the school day at Central this year - we don't know that. We will petition DPI," Jacobi said.
Although students were given the day off, teachers were required to report to school to work on their professional development plans, Jacobi said.
"Teachers are working (Monday). They will be going to alternate locations working on their professional development plans," Jacobi said.
Central is expected to reopen Tuesday.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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