On Friday, April 10, a main break in a water pipe beneath Wootton Parkway left the school without water, and students were consequently dismissed early.
Between 8:10 and 8:30 a.m. that day, an accumulation of light brown water began pooling on Wootton Parkway near the bus and lower parking lot entrances. At the same time, the school lost access to all water features, including toilets, sinks and water fountains, and therefore, all bathrooms were locked. “We had to make sure that bathrooms weren’t continued to be used, because that then becomes a sanitary issue,” business administrator Arlin De La Rosa said.
During second period, an announcement was made over the intercom confirming that the school had indeed lost all access to running water. Then, at 8:36 a.m., Principal Joseph Bostic Jr. sent out a message via StudentSquare and email confirming the issue as a “water main break in the community” and that it was working closely with the MCPS central office and local officials to “assess the repairs and determine our operational plan for the remainder of the day.”
Students remained on an unmodified schedule until homeroom, when an announcement was made that homeroom would be ending early, and students were expected to move to their third period. During the third period, a message was sent out that students would be dismissed at 10:15 a.m.. “We didn’t have water in the building, so we had to move forward with canceling school, which we worked with the central office [on],” De La Rosa said.
The disrupted pipe was later confirmed not to belong to MCPS and was therefore set to be repaired by the WSSC and the city of Rockville, classifying it as a municipal-level issue. According to De La Rosa, work to repair the pipe began around 2 p.m. that day, and water had returned to the school by Sunday.
On Sunday, mechanics from MCPS were brought into the building to flush the system and ensure all facilities were working properly. Students returned to school on Monday to an unmodified day. “I was surprised students were able to return on Monday, as I would assume fixing the pipes and making sure everything works properly would take longer,” senior Vishnu Varma said.
Additionally, all after-school activities taking place at the school on Friday and over the weekend were canceled or moved, including the highly anticipated first weekend of the spring production, “Hairspray.” Two showings have since been added on April 16 and 19. “After a week of nonstop rehearsals every single day, we all came to school on that Friday wearing ‘Hairspray’ production shirts. Everyone involved was excited for opening night, we all invited family and friends, just for it to get cancelled due to the pipe break. The news devastated everybody,” senior Kioko Kibua said.
The construction on the road also left a bumpy patch. Students have expressed frustration with these new bumps. “The bumps on the road make it feel really unsafe. My car is really wobbly over it, even if I’m going slow,” senior Lilly Kendall said.
De La Rosa expressed satisfaction with how quickly the administration and building service teams acted to ensure a smooth and safe handling of the process. “Our building service manager, Mr. Murray, was the one who identified it, and he got us all into action, so we reacted really quickly,” De La Rosa said.
