Heating issue to blame
Fairbanks Middle School students are getting their winter break a couple days early, but not under the best of circumstances.
Fairbanks Local School District officials announced Thursday the district would close Friday due to a heating issue in the building that houses the middle and high schools.
On Friday afternoon, school officials announced that middle school students would be off again on Monday and Tuesday.
Fairbanks Schools’ winter break begins Wednesday, Dec. 20, according to the calendar found on its website.
Fairbanks Superintendent Bob Humble said the problem stems from a part of the school’s dual-heating system. The high school’s heating is steam-based, while the middle school’s comes from hot water.
The device that broke Thursday takes the steam that heats the high school and changes it into hot water that heats the middle school. He said the specific part that broke on Thursday was custom-made for the building.
The manufacturer reportedly told the district it would take four business days to obtain a replacement part.
“I don’t think we’ve ever shut down due to a mechanical problem,” Humble said. “That’s what happens when you get buildings as old as these.”
While the problem only affects the middle school, Humble said officials decided to close the entire district because the problem was found midday on Thursday.
“It was too late in the day for us to put a plan together,” he said.
Officials spent Friday coming up with a plan for next week and Humble said high school exams that were scheduled for Friday will be pushed to Monday.
Humble also said the school days students miss will count toward Fairbanks’ make-up days. If the district misses more than five days in a year due to unforeseen circumstances, they will make them up by having school on certain holidays.
Humble said he’s working with the Fairbanks board of education to come up with a plan to fix the district’s ailing buildings. He said whatever fix the board comes up with, it will likely include a mix of maintenance and completely new construction.
He said residents should expect some sort of new plan to go together within a year.
“We knew that these things were going to happen,” he said. “They just happened sooner than we expected them to.”