During the raging winter storm that took place here in Denton and all around the state on the week of Feb. 15, several rooms in the building were severely damaged causing teachers to relocate and equipment to be replaced. The 300s were hit the hardest, as major flooding occurred, causing equipment, locker rooms, and classrooms to be flooded.
“Almost $80,000 worth of damage was done,” Head Golf Coach Mick Maxey said. “The whole facility was flooded and it damaged our $60,000 fancy machine for golf, so we already started taking it apart and probably won’t get another one until the new school building.”
It wasn’t just the golf room that had a lot of damage, several classrooms around the area were seriously damaged. Floors were ripped out and, and the 2 teachers that had extensive damage were forced to relocate until at least after spring break.
“I know I lost a bookshelf and subwoofer,” English teacher Sergio London said. “Considering the school year, we all have had to adjust but this is just another task to work out. I’m hoping to get back before the year ends.”
Repair crews are working every day to get the area back to normal condition, while they are attempting to restore pipes and rooms, there are certain measures they have to take for a complete restoration of the rooms.
“They have to set up fans and devices that detect the dryness for the room and walls to get completely dry before they try to fix it,” Principal Joel Hays said. “Or it would cause mold in the walls and that is the last thing we want.”
The timetable for teachers to get back to their classrooms, and for everything to be completely repaired is still an unknown date. For areas in the golf room and adjacent classrooms that received extensive flooding and damage, more measures will be taken.
“If the humidity in the walls doesn’t go down,” Hays said. “Walls are going to be ripped out and replaced especially with the sheetrock lined walls.”
Even with most of the room drying and dehumidified, a lot of destructive action will still be taken on it.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Maxey said.” But a lot of the golf area will be demolished and replaced. Very frustrating.”
When the school and officers were notified of the major flooding in the school, it was too cold to do anything besides turn off the water. Luckily for the schools sake, only the 300s and a few other rooms had some sort of damage.
“The newer part of the building is the area that took the hardest hit,” Hays said. “With the open air pipes and less insolation facing outside, it is more likely to be hit unlike the main parts of the building that are sided with cinder block built a long time ago.”
