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Parents press Maror County schools over Wallace Elementary heating failure and response
Summary
Parents and auditors urged faster repairs after an inspection found severely clogged boiler loops at Wallace Elementary that left classrooms cold; the district plans aggressive cleaning, temporary heat strips and a replacement boiler once pipes are cleared.
Parents and district officials traded sharp questions on Dec. 9 after an audit team described longstanding maintenance problems that left Wallace Elementary without reliable heat and forced students to be relocated.
At the meeting parent Mandy Ch said the district’s handling of a recent safety incident and the heating outage left families frustrated and fearful. "That weapon was here all day long — my child could have been one of those," she said, pressing the board for better communication and the right to pick up students in emergencies.
An auditor from the district’s investment-grade audit team told the board the immediate cause of the outage is severe build-up inside the school’s water loops. "We pulled gallons of mud out of the boiler," said Scott, a service technician who described clogged filters, traps and steel piping coated with scale and sediment. The auditors said the district’s water-treatment vendor had not been maintaining chemical treatment bins consistently, leaving the system susceptible to the deposits that reduce circulation and damage equipment.
District staff said crews have configured emergency electric heat strips and adjusted control setpoints to keep some rooms near 65°F as a temporary measure while they pursue an aggressive cleaning plan. The audit team recommended a week to 10 days of repeated chemical flushing and manual trap cleaning before a permanent boiler replacement is installed. The firm said a new boiler is on order, but installation should wait until the piping is cleared to avoid immediately fouling new equipment.
Superintendent Dr. Tiller told the board the district is seeking a national water‑treatment contractor to perform the cleaning as soon as contract details are finalized; local vendors have been used in the past but the district plans to escalate. Board members were told the district hopes to restore Wallace by the end of the Christmas break if cleaning and temporary measures proceed as planned.
The board agreed to pursue the emergency cleaning, investigate the vendor’s service records and implement a written logbook for preventative maintenance. District leaders said they will update families as contractors are scheduled and repairs proceed.
Next steps: the district will pursue an aggressive pipe‑cleaning contract, continue emergency heating measures, and install replacement boilers only after loops test clear.
