West Grant High School basement flood forces mitigation; board told weight room, wrestling gear will need replacement

Administrators told the Scranton School District board that a 3-inch water pipe burst in early July at West Grant High School, flooding the basement, destroying equipment and forcing extensive mitigation, and that the district will need to cover some replacement costs because insurance will not pay full depreciated replacement value.

District facilities staff described the flood, the mitigation work, and the scope of lost equipment and rooms. The board was also presented with motions to approve replacement purchases for weight-room equipment and wrestling mats.

What happened and immediate impacts

An administrator described the incident as an ‘‘explosion’’ of an undamaged 3-inch water pipe at approximately 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday in early July. She said the pipe ran until about 5 a.m. Monday and estimated roughly 1,100,000 gallons of water entered the basement. ‘‘The water was chest high in the utilities rooms,’’ she said.

Officials described a full mitigation process: environmental specialists removed and remediated wet materials, walls and floors were removed or ground down, and items touched by the flood were disposed of. The basin-level spaces affected include locker rooms, the weight room, the wrestling room, the tech ed space, a new computer lab and some health and physical-education staff offices.

Insurance and replacement cost implications

Board members were told the district will receive insurance proceeds but not full replacement value because of depreciation rules: ‘‘when you go through an insurance claim . . . things are depreciated. So they're not gonna give you face value on something that's 20 years old. So we're gonna have some financial impact to replace things,’’ an administrator said.

Procurement and near-term actions

The board was asked to approve purchases for weight-room equipment and wrestling mats (items with long lead times) so purchase orders can be processed quickly. Administrators said some items were previously discussed for board consensus to let POs be processed because lead times are long.

Facility availability

The superintendent and operations staff said the rest of the building passed environmental testing and is safe to reoccupy, but the basement will not be operable at the start of school while mitigation and reconstruction continue.

Ending

Board members asked for additional public information and clarification on costs; administrators said they would post numbers to the district website and return with more detailed cost estimates as the insurance settlement and reconstruction plans are finalized.