Record rainfall and a rising Winooski River poured about six feet of water into the basement of Montpelier High School last week.
The deluge engulfed the school’s boilers and electrical transformers, and it soaked tables, chairs, theater props, bicycles — “just random things that you keep in a basement at a school building,” said Libby Bonesteel, the superintendent of Montpelier-Roxbury Public Schools.
“If you do the math, with the amount of square footage we have, we had two million gallons of water in our basement at MHS,” Bonesteel said.
After last week’s catastrophic flooding, Montpelier High, which sits near the banks of the Winooski River, appears to be the hardest-hit out of any school in the state. While other schools also sustained flood damage, state officials said that, by and large, it could have been much worse.
As of Sunday, local officials reported that at least 13 other schools had been harmed by floods and rainwater, according to the results of a survey conducted by the state Agency of Education and shared with VTDigger.
Eleven of those schools saw only minor impacts, while two — not including Montpelier High — experienced major damage, according to the survey results.
Ted Fisher, a spokesperson for the Agency of Education, emphasized that not all schools have responded to the survey, so the state’s data is still incomplete. As in other public buildings, the extent of the flood’s impact on schools is still coming into focus, he said.
But, Fisher said, “the main through line on this is that the majority of schools who have been impacted have suffered sort of like minor impacts.”
Chester-Andover Elementary School, in Chester, was one of a few schools that sustained major damage, according to local officials’ response to the state’s survey.
“Roadway washed out in part, structural integrity of part of the main building is still being assessed, structure of an outbuilding is damaged, a fuel tank may have been compromised by water (still being assessed) and may need to be pumped out and replaced,” local officials wrote to the state. “Playground mulch/material entirely washed away by flooding, general clean up of mud and debris will be needed.”
In Sheldon Academy, an independent school in Rutland, floodwaters filled boiler rooms, mixed with diesel fuel and then spilled into hallways, according to the survey results. The school’s entire bottom floor, art room and elevator were impaired, administrators told the state.
“Currently, our programs are closed until hot water, boiler and electrical systems are checked and declared usable,” administrators wrote.
Several schools reported minor flooding in their buildings, while others said school transportation was affected by washed-out local roadways. Administrators at Orleans Southwest Supervisory Union said that a van used for special education students was flooded.
But most of Vermont’s schools appeared to come away largely unscathed. That was the case in Barre, according to Barre Unified Union School District superintendent Chris Hennessey. Although floodwaters ravaged the town, its school district saw “no flood-related damage to our facilities,” Hennessey said.
“We did have about, I don’t know, one to two feet of mud and silt coming off the river into the parking lot of Spaulding High School,” he said. “But none of it got in the buildings and it’s already been cleaned up, so we’re good to go. Compared to how some of our neighbors did, I feel very fortunate.”
Jonathan Steiner, the president and CEO of the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust, which insures most of Vermont’s public schools, echoed those sentiments.
So far, only a handful of schools have submitted insurance claims relating to flood losses, Steiner said. The Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust, or VSBIT, will cover the bulk of the costs associated with flooding, other than $10,000 deductibles, he said.
“It could have been so much worse with the extent of the flooding,” Steiner said. “Montpelier High School is definitely the worst we have.”
In Montpelier, workers finished pumping water out of the basement this past weekend. Bonesteel, the Montpelier-Roxbury Superintendent, said she expects that costs for pumping and drying and cleaning will reach $1 million.
The school’s electrical transformers will have to be replaced, Bonesteel said, and the condition of the boilers is not yet clear. The school will need a new softball field, and is assessing whether the parking lot sustained damage, as well.
“The district — quite honestly, while it sounds pretty bad, we’re pretty lucky,” she said. “Considering what the rest of Montpelier is dealing with right now.”
