While the heat is not working, Jonathan Alder officials say Plain City Elementary School is warm.
“The temperature of the classrooms never dropped,” said Monica Leichtenberg, district communications coordinator.
District officials said a “glitch” in the Plain City Elementary School heating system caused it to shut down. Even so, Leichtenberg said the temperature in most areas of the building was 60 degrees before any students or staff was in the building and before any technology was turned on.
“The body heat and the technology will raise the temperature,” she said.
She noted that while the classrooms were warm, some offices in the building were cold.
Leichtenberg explained that Plain City Elementary School was built with a geothermal heating system. The system draws ground water, which is warmer than the environment, and heats it to 100 degrees. The system is set up so that once the water reaches 100 degrees it is circulated to heat the building.
She said that because of the cold weather Thursday and Friday, the system was not able to heat the water to 100 degrees. She said the system was only able to get the water to 74 degrees meaning the system never circulated the water.
Leichtenberg said that since the building wasn’t cold the maintenance personnel saw it as “a nonissue so he didn’t communicate it.”
Building officials knew the temperature in the building might dip and told students to dress accordingly, but the message wasn’t sent to district administration.
She added that some social media posts also confused the situation.
“Communication was the issue here,” Leichtenberg said.
She explained that maintenance officials repaired the system Friday and it is operational again.
Leichtenberg said there have been “no issues in the past.”
She explained that while there have been other days when the water didn’t reach 100 degrees, the old panel was set to override the thermostat and circulate the water anyway. She said officials thought the same thing would happen with the new panel, which is about a year old.
“Because it is a new panel, we didn’t have a chance to test it until yesterday,” Leichtenberg said. “Obviously, it failed.”
Leichtenberg stressed that the district’s central goal is, “to keep the kids in school.”