USD 259 experiences thousands of dollars in water, lightning damage

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Wichita School Board is expected to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to fix water and storm damage at three USD 259 schools.

The first school that experienced water damage was Seltzer Elementary School. According to Luke Newman, the district’s director of facilities, back in October, the condenser inside a drinking fountain failed, causing the coils to to freeze up, break, and result in the unit flooding. Water got into the hall, main office, and the school’s entry way.

The second school to experience water damage was Truesdale Middle School. Earlier this month, during winter break, one of their drinking fountain began to leak. Since there was no one around to discover this leak, the water spread to several classrooms.

“Water is, can be pretty damaging so it kind of just depends on the part of the building it is, how big of a water line it is. Fortunately, drinking fountain lines aren’t your biggest in the building, but they still cause plenty of damage,” said Luke Newman, Director of Facilities.

The damage at Seltzer will cost about $42,000, and the damage at Truesdell will cost about $60,000.

“We actually do regularly check our drinking fountains, it’s called preventive maintenance, and we run through, we open them up, we clean off the coils to try and keep those clean cause as those get dirty, they’re more prone to failure,” said Newman.

Newman says that these leaks rarely happen.

“A lot of times, we catch it before it gets to the point where it results in flooding to the extent that it did, but it unfortunately, in this instance, it happened over a weekend, and so it wasn’t discovered until Monday and then the second instance additionally occurred over winter break when we were out,” he said.

North High School also received damage in October after lightning struck the tower. It caused more than $20,000 of damage to the clay tile roof.

The money for the repairs is coming from insurance reserves.

The Board of Education is voting on funding for the repairs Monday evening.