by Laura Glesby
Four early elementary Lincoln-Bassett School classes will start off the school year in Wexler-Grant classrooms, after a burst sprinkler flooded parts of the building earlier this week.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Chief of School Operations Paul Whyte provided that update on Thursday to the Independent regarding the classes’ temporary relocation.
NHPS is cleaning up flood damage in Lincoln-Bassett after a sprinkler erupted in the school library. The library, four classrooms, and the school’s STEM lab all suffered water damage as a result. According to Whyte, the fire department discovered the flooding after responding to an alarm.
He told the Independent said that two first-grade classes, one second-grade class, and one special education class will be impacted. They will be relocated to Wexler-Grant, about a mile away from Lincoln-Bassett, for about three weeks from the start of school on Monday, Aug. 31.
Students in those classes will be bused or dropped off at Lincoln-Bassett each morning, then transported to Wexler-Grant to start off the school day. At the end of the day, the students will be transported back to Lincoln-Bassett for dismissal, Whyte wrote.
Whyte had also mentioned the relocation at a Wednesday night Board of Alders Education Committee meeting that centered around the school district’s readiness for the upcoming school year, which starts on Monday, Aug. 31.
At Wednesday’s committee meeting, Whyte said that the district is taking on a thorough cleanup effort. “We do want to make sure it’s done right,” he said. “While remediation cleaned up the water immediately… We do need to rip up the carpet, we need to go behind cabinets and cubbies, to make sure there’s no mold there. So that we can make sure this space is safe for students.”
Whyte said he anticipates that the remediation will cost the school district “in excess of $50,000.”