Published: May 08, 2009 02:40 pm      

Water shuts Chouteau school down

Chouteau students are staying home for the second day Friday while water damage at the school is being repaired.

Students are expected to be back in school by Monday, but at different sites. The early childhood center and Mazie Elementary will be open for students, but the elementary, middle and high schools will likely not be open until the end of next week.

Two Chouteau churches volunteered to house students for the week.

Director of Operations Stan Horn said he hopes to have the cafeteria and kitchen back in service by Monday. Students will walk or be shuttled to

the cafeteria from the churches for lunch and afternoon sports.

The school called in a water restoration company, Burggraf Restoration, to help restore the

buildings.

Horn said every building on the main campus of school was damaged by the massive amounts of rain last Friday.

He said several school personnel worked last Friday to fight the water, which was leaking through the ceilings, walls and floors.

Horn said the school put off the cleanup as long as possible, but had to begin Thursday to

prevent mold.

Horn said the high school was hit hardest by the water, followed by the middle, then elementary schools.

The school is having to replace everything that got wet during the storm.

The buildings are being dried out and the company is considering whether to pull up the carpet. Horn said he can detect an odor because of the wet carpets, so he thinks the carpets won’t be

salvageable.

Sheetrock has been cut out of 30 to 40 classrooms as of Thursday afternoon, and the company has already pulled down 300 ceiling tiles.

Work will continue into next week, and could be done by next Friday.