Water damage forces Central Falls High School to delay first day

August 30, 2017 8:16 pm

By John Krinjak

Email: jkrinjak@abc6.com

Twitter: @johnkrinjakABC6

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (WLNE) — It’s a rocky start to the school year for some students in Central Falls. High schoolers were set to begin classes Thursday, but now water damage to the building is pushing the first day back to next Tuesday, September 5.

The entire roof at Central Falls High School has been under repair throughout the summer, but school officials say rain overnight caused damage to part of the school–including the library, computer lab and some classrooms.

"We had rain two or three weeks ago and it was fine. So we didn’t expect that it would leak into the building," said Superintendent Victor Capellan.

As a result contractors will be doing emergency repairs over the next couple of days–something school officials thought would be best without approximately 800 students around.

"When the water started coming in we said out of an abundance of caution let’s cancel school for a couple of extra days," said Capellan.

But could this all have been prevented?

"I really feel that this should have been done a number of years ago. we know the conditions of buildings all across the state, needed to have work done. so this just shows that we needed to have this work done," said Capellan.

School officials say the ongoing work is still slated to be done by September 15.

"We’re all frustrated. we’re all frustrated with the fact that the first day of school is a special day," said Capellan. "I’m sure students welcome the extra two days of vacation, but just remember they will have to make them up."

The superintendent says he’s confident students will be able to return on Tuesday.

Elementary and middle school students are still set to go back Thursday.