School flood cost $250,000

Recent flooding at Glacier High School caused up to $250,000 in damage, and it’s not yet certain who will foot the bill.

The amount is the best estimate at this time for the havoc a broken pipe wreaked in the nearly 4-year-old building, Superintendent Darlene Schottle said. An insurance claims adjuster still is reviewing invoices and the number could change.

Given that 11 classrooms, a special education pod, administrative offices and the school’s main office were flooded, and water damaged everything from walls to interactive whiteboards, Schottle said she wasn’t shocked at the damage estimate.

“I wasn’t surprised at the price tag. If anything, I was probably pleasantly surprised,” she said.

“I believe from what we’ve seen so far, [$250,000] is the high end of the estimate,” she added. “It might not be quite this much depending on how it’s all worked out.”

The adjuster has said that if the district and restoration crews had not responded as quickly and as aggressively as they did, the cost would have been much higher, she said.

The damage occurred Feb. 26 when a frozen fire-suppression line burst. About 3,500 gallons of water gushed out in 15 minutes, flooding classrooms and offices on both floors of the building’s B pod.

Reports by CTA Architects and Engineers, which designed the building, and Morrison Maierle, the firm Kalispell schools recently hired for its engineering services, indicate that insufficient insulation led to the frozen pipe.

There were gaps between “I” beams that support the roof trusses, particularly around places where the beams where connected by bolts. There also was no ceiling vapor barrier in that part of the building, although there was 3.5-inch batt insulation on top of the gypsum board ceiling.

When the adjuster and architecture firms examined the rest of the building, they found similar problems in Glacier’s three other pods. The pipes could have frozen in any of those pods during the first three winters of Glacier’s operation.

In fact, the sprinkler system might have frozen and not broken, according to the report from CTA Architects.

“Or it could have been that the situation was different that evening when we had the right eastern wind direction, low temperature and a mechanical system scenario that allowed the average return air temperature to dip 10 degrees lower than the unoccupied weekend setback temperature,” the report says.

Outside, the mercury dropped to 9 below early Feb. 26; by the time the flood began, the temperature had climbed to 7 degrees.

Air returning to the air-handler in the B pod was unusually cold — 44.7 degrees — that morning, according to the Morrison Maierle report. 

“This unusually low temperature suggests the presence of outdoor air infiltration into one or more areas served by this air-handler,” the report says.

The district is lucky the break occurred when it did, Schottle said.

“We’re fortunate it did happen when people were in the building and that it only occurred in one place,” she said.

Crews already have taken steps to prevent more broken pipes in the future. The B pod now has 12-inch batt insulation, the gaps in the bolted beam connection have been filled with batt insulation and a vapor barrier has been installed beneath the ceiling’s gypsum board and connected to the vapor barrier on the exterior wall.

Similar work will need to be done in the other three pods. The district will make those repairs this summer, although officials don’t yet know where money for that project will come from, Schottle said.

“Whether it’s eventually covered under insurance, we will make sure it’s done this summer. We will work out the costs along the way,” she said.

The district doesn’t yet know how much the repairs will cost or who will ultimately be responsible for them, she added. Nor does the district know who will be responsible for paying for the damage from the flood.

The district’s insurance representative has said that “in these kinds of cases, it can take a very long time to go through the paperwork,” Schottle said. “Before they get through all the materials and the paperwork, it can take sometimes a year.”

Students and teachers in affected classrooms were displaced for about a month as crews from Stat Restoration and Allied 24/7 Restoration worked to repair the damage. Repairs were wrapped up in March, allowing students and staff to move back into their regular classrooms before spring break.

The cooperation between the restoration crews, architecture firms and district staff impressed the insurance adjuster, Schottle said.

“Sometimes it’s not as easy for all the groups to work together. We appreciate that everybody’s focus was on the students ... and not focused on who was to blame,” she said.

The architecture firms’ reports on the flood are available at www.sd5.k12.mt.us. Click on “Departments” and then on “Facilities.”

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.