Students at Plain City Elementary School got an unplanned vacation day Friday.
Jonathan Alder officials closed the school building Friday after staff smelled what they called, “a strong burning odor lingering throughout the school.”
Monica Leichtenberg, district communications coordinator, said there were several events that came together to cause confusion with staff and the parents.
Leichtenberg said that Wednesday afternoon, shortly before the end of the school day, a kindergarten student pulled the fire alarm.
She said there was no issue and students were not in danger, but the building was evacuated. Students were allowed to go into the building to get belongings and prepare to go home.
Thursday, about 3 p.m., staff and students in the building began to smell what Leichtenberg termed “a burning-type smell.”
“We immediately notified the fire department and the building was evacuated,” Leichtenberg said.
She explained that, “because it was so close to the end of the day, we kept them outside and just shuttled them onto the busses when they came.”
Leichtenberg stressed that the two incidents were not related.
Officials from the Pleasant Valley Joint Fire Department went through the school, found nothing burning and cleared the building.
“They had no idea what it was and couldn’t find a cause,” Leichtenberg said. “At that point we thought maybe it was just an outside smell coming in or something like that.”
Friday when staff members arrived at the building, the smell was gone.
“There was nothing,” Leichtenberg said. “It was totally dissipated.”
About 20 minutes after staff began to prepare the building for the day they began to smell, “the same smell.”
The fire department was again notified. District officials said that following a walk through by the facilities director and the fire department, “it was determined that it is not safe to have students in the building.”
Officials apologized for the late decision and the short notice.
“Our main priority is to keep our students safe and the last minute decision was necessary in order to accomplish this,” officials wrote in a statement.
Leichtenberg said it took the facilities team and the fire department “a couple of hours” to determine the cause of the smell. She said two rotors with the building mechanicals were, “rubbing against each other.”
“It is supposed to be fixed by the end of the day,” Leichtenberg said Friday. “It should not interfere in any way with our ability to reopen and have students back in the building.”
District officials added that, “during this process, we learned a lot about our current procedures and we will adjust them as we see necessary.”
The Jonathan Alder School District has classes scheduled for Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving break begins Wednesday.