Over Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, a pipe located in the Chesterton High School counseling office ceiling froze and burst, setting off sprinklers and causing water to flood throughout the offices. When the sprinkler system was set off, the local fire department was contacted immediately and the team was able to arrive within thirty minutes. A staff member was able to shut off the valve and prevent more water from accumulating.
“It was quite the mess, but some fast-action I hear from the police and staff here at CHS has helped really to avert a bigger disaster,” School Counselor Mrs. Roytan said.
The water flooded the carpeting and also impacted the lower part of the walls, including the baseboards.
“So it was a bigger area than just the counseling office…it did make it down to Mrs. Peterson and Mr. Martinson’s area as well… The whole counseling front area, including… Mrs. Schreiber’s office and the athletic office. It went somewhat into the SRO’s office and it did escape the Assistant Principal’s on that side,” Roytan said.
An outside company has been hired to aid in an efficient clean-up process, which has helped in terms of boxing up items from the cabinets and drying out affected items with fans. The cabinets that were impacted by the pipe burst have been taken out and are awaiting repairs. Due to the damage, the affected personnel have been temporarily moved to the library for an indefinite period of time. In case you need to locate one of the affected persons, Mrs. Bartow, Mr. Moore, Mrs. Roytan, and Mr. Urban can be found in the library; while Mrs. Scheiber, Mr. Martinson, and Mrs. Peterson are remaining in their offices. Additionally, the Athletic Office has been temporarily moved to the health hallway (K hallway) in the former ISS room.
“We’re lucky we have this space in the library. We are forever grateful for them to provide this space. We know we’re infringing a little bit on the rooms they can use and the rooms other people can use, but they’ve been very gracious,” Roytan said.
Thankfully for the counselors, their appointments have already been scheduled, so now their main focus is helping kids figure out where exactly they can find them. Four counselors received individual workspaces in the library, while the department heads Ms. Hess and Ms. Arthur share a room used for credit recovery.
“We’re really grateful we have a space here and we can still see our kids and do our jobs. It is an adjustment, but I think it’s worked out really well,” Roytan said
Despite the flooding, staff members are looking on the bright side after this challenging disruption.
“One benefit is kind of funny, sometimes we stay in our offices because kids and staff come to us, so we don’t get out into the building as much as I’ve always wanted to, so this has been nice, walking around more if I have to deliver a pass if we don’t have an aide or something like that, it’s just been kind of neat, seeing staff I don’t see on a regular basis,” Roytan said.
Even though the counselors may not be in their offices currently, that does not mean you should not speak to them if you need any sort of assistance.
“We’re still here for you guys, never hesitate if you need to come and chat with us about anything. Our system still works, we’re just in a different place, that’s all. We want kids to know that our service to you has not changed one bit, we’re always going to be here for you, we just have to bear with us until we can get back to normal,” Roytan said.