UPDATE: Butler County elementary school to remain closed Friday due to water damage

Teachers in Butler County’s Ross Schools have approved a new labor contract but only until the end of this school year. Ross district officials said the contract, which had been negotiated with the help of a federal mediator, will allow the district to launch a new set of talks early in 2020 to create a longer labor contract with its instructors. (File Photo/Journal-News)

Teachers in Butler County’s Ross Schools have approved a new labor contract but only until the end of this school year. Ross district officials said the contract, which had been negotiated with the help of a federal mediator, will allow the district to launch a new set of talks early in 2020 to create a longer labor contract with its instructors. (File Photo/Journal-News)

UPDATE @ 4:09 p.m.:

Hundreds of students at Ross Schools’ Morgan Elementary will have another day off Friday due to the continued cleanup from extensive water damage, said school officials.

“We are still assessing multiple areas. Right now we are in clean mode,” said Scott Gates, superintendent of the Butler County school system.

Scott told the Journal-News it’s too early to predict if the school, which suffered extensive flooding from a burst water pipe on the second floor, will open on Monday for classes. It was closed Thursday after the Wednesday incident.

He said there are no cost estimates for the amount of water damage, which led local fire crews to rush to the school Wednesday afternoon in response to flood alarms.

INITIAL REPORT

A Ross elementary school is closed today after a burst pipe caused water damage in on Wednesday evening.

Crews will be working on the 520-student Morgan Elementary School, at 3427 Chapel Road, today.

“ The damage is real bad,“ said Ross Schools Superintendent Scott Gates.

The first call to emergency crews came in around 4:07 p.m. on Wednesday, and fire crews on the scene reported water damage in some of the school’s classrooms.

 

No one was injured, but Russ school officials and firefighters scrambled to save books and other learning materials from the water coming from a burst pipe on the second floor that flowed down to the first floor of the two-story school.

Any decisions about further closings will be made later today as the damage is assessed.

Gates said firefighters do not believe cold played a part in the water pipe bursting because the pipe was located in the interior of the building.

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