Flood Damage Across All School Buildings, Opening Delayed Until Monday, September 13th

The Rye City School District will delay the opening of school until Monday, September 13th due to extensive hurricane damage across all school buildings. Schools were originally scheduled to open on Thursday, September 9th.

“Across the district, all school buildings sustained flood damage,” said Rye City School District Superintendent Eric Byrne. At the high school and middle school buildings, there was over five feet of water impacting electric systems as well as the Internet, telephone and fire systems in all district buildings across Rye.

The district’s full communication send Sunday morning to parents is included below:

“From: Eric Byrne
Date: Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 9:40 AM
Subject: September 5 – Community Update
To: Rye City School District Recipients

Dear RCSD Community,

I hope you and your families are recovering well after tropical storm Ida. The impact of the storm on Rye has been significant with damage to homes, businesses, community spaces and, unfortunately, our schools. Across the district, all school buildings sustained flood damage. We will need to slightly alter our opening schedule to allow for clean up, repair and classroom set up that was delayed because of the storm. The school year will now begin for all students in person on Monday, September 13th.

Over the coming days, we are confident that we can make all the necessary repairs to restart the process of opening school. Due to the overwhelming amount of flooding in the electrical rooms of the High School/Middle School, damage to the electrical system has completely disabled the centralized network that runs the Internet, telephone and fire systems in ALL of our school buildings. Repairs are underway and we have begun powering up the electrical system and identifying the specific areas where additional repairs need to be completed. Below you will find a full list of the assessed damage District wide.

RHS/RMS

Electrical system powering the District network located in the basement was flooded with over five feet of water and will need to be repaired and in some cases full replacement. We have managed to begin power restoration and identification of the equipment that needs to be replaced for full operation.

Basement areas/boiler rooms flooded with over five feet of water and require water removal, drying and boiler replacement

Some first-floor classrooms had water accumulation and need remediation with removal of drywall at the baseboard and floor repair and replacement

Turf Field was flooded and will need inspection, sanitation, and to undergo any necessary repairs prior to use. Our tarp system did an excellent job protecting the field, however some repairs are necessary due to the extreme volume of levels of flooding and the force of water flow and debris

Track was flooded and covered with mud/silt requiring cleaning and sanitizing
The basement level weight room was flooded with over five feet of water and will need to be repaired

Some classroom technology (computers, WiFi access points, etc.) was damaged and must be replaced and installed

Smoke sensors in the fire alarm system were damaged by water accumulation and must be replaced

Midland
Classrooms and common areas had water accumulation and are being remediated

School-wide electrical systems were flooded and we have begun the repair process

Boiler room had some water accumulation and requires drying

Osborn
Classrooms and common areas including the newly constructed special services suite had several inches of water accumulation and are being remediated

Milton
The gymnasium, cafeteria and library where the roof had not yet been completed experienced roof leaks resulting in water damage and are under repair

Central Office
Significant water accumulation requires remediation and potential relocation of staff/school district resources

The District’s custodial and facilities staff are experienced in dealing with flood events and we are so grateful for all their work. We are working with remediation experts on repair and restoration of spaces and equipment. With these coinciding efforts, we are confident in our ability to get all our students back in our schools on Monday, September 13. Should anything change we will be certain to communicate with you. Families will be receiving additional information from each school building principal in the next day or so regarding rescheduling of events (popsicle gatherings, school tours, community Q&A sessions, etc.).

We appreciate that this unusual and unexpected change is impacting our families in many different ways. To that end, we have contacted many youth serving organizations in Rye to explain this challenge and request that they try to offer programming for school-aged children on September 9th and 10th. We will share any information on programming as soon as it is available.

Thank you very much for your support and understanding as we work to open schools as quickly and safely as possible. For specific questions about damage to school materials, technology or your family’s needs at this time and all other questions please email [email protected]. Enjoy the Labor Day weekend, and I wish all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah a happy and healthy new year.

Sincerely,

Eric Byrne, Ed.D.
Superintendent”