Winters Elementary expected to reopen Friday after second heating coil failure
PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WJAR) — The Pawtucket School Committee held an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss the ongoing issues at Henry J. Winters Elementary School after a second heating coil failed in the 6-month-old building over the weekend.
The building has been closed to students since Feb. 3, after a heating coil failure prompted flooding in the school in the beginning of February. The school was set to reopen on Monday before the second heating coil failed over the weekend.
Acting Superintendent Lisa Benedetti-Ramzi said she expects the school to reopen Friday.
"They're not doing face-to-face in classroom learning because of a mechanical error not for the first time but for the second time, so leaving this meeting, I'm mad," said School Committee Chair Jim Chellel, following Tuesday night's meeting.
School leaders questioned Gilbane Building Company, Colliers and the engineers working on the building about why this happened a second time.
Engineers claimed the air conditioning unit in the school is to blame.
"They don't know why it happened but we do know air conditioning came down on the copper coils and it burst," said Chellel.
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Engineers said the AC turned on, unwarranted, and caused the pipe to burst.
Chellel said nobody knows why it happened, but they have a plan in place to prevent any of the remaining 66 coils from bursting.
"We are now going to turn off the air conditioning unit," explained Chellel "So there's going to be no AC to be able to turn on, even if you ask for it to turn on, it's not going to be able to turned on. Second, they put almost like an antifreeze inside the coils."
Chellel said there will also be an alarm that will alert custodians if it were to happen again.
"They are actually on ladders taking the coils down and looking at them," said Committee Member Joanne Bonollo.
Bonollo said that the process started Monday and will be complete Wednesday.
Virtual learning will take place Wednesday and Thursday.
The $49 million school building opened last fall.