AUSTIN, Texas — Austin ISD said the water is back on at James Bowie High School Wednesday after staff found a second water leak Tuesday. The second leak came one day after a large water leak took nearly an entire day to fix on Monday.
AISD said Wednesday that there could still be water pressure issues over the next day. Restrooms and sinks are back to being operational.
"We thought we were here 24 hours ago, and the situation swiftly changed. We have aging infrastructure that was seriously impacted by the winter storm, and sometimes these issues will come up, we can’t control that," AISD said on Twitter. "We can control how we respond to them and if we proactively monitor our pipes, HVACs and other infrastructure, which we do. Doing this helps prevent or mitigate these issues, but nothing can stop them completely."
On Tuesday, Nov. 2, bathrooms in the main building were shut off and bottled water was available in most classrooms, the main office and the cafeteria. AISD anticipated that the repairs would be complete by late Tuesday afternoon.
Bathrooms in the athletics area were open to students, and the district said Tuesday that it would again have 17 portable restrooms on the campus. Handwashing stations were also available along with hand sanitizer.
The kitchen was still operational and lunch was set to be served as normal.
The district said classes would also continue as normal Tuesday, but if a student needed to stay home, it would be an excused absence. Additional staff was also dispatched to the campus to help with class transitions and any support students or staff needed.
The school district said on Monday, Nov. 1, at around 10:30 a.m. the school was losing 26,000 gallons of water per hour when crews found the location of the first leak. AISD tweeted that the leak was fixed around 8:45 p.m. Monday.
"We believe this is the result caused by the winter storm, and we’re only seeing this now because after fixing the water pressure issue, sections of pipe that were damaged in the storm are now failing," the district said on Twitter.
Matias Segura, chief of operations for AISD, explained the building's piping is original to its construction in 1986. The aging infrastructure made the piping's joints more vulnerable, also leading to their failure.
The district sent two pallets of bottled water and a pallet of gallon jugs of water – which equates to 2,304 water bottles and 288 gallon jugs – to Bowie's campus. Due to the sufficient amount of resources available to students during the repairs and the school's ability to serve lunch, the district decided it was not necessary to close either of the days.
"We had a lot of lost time for school during the time we were out, so it is important to keep school going today so our kids can keep learning," said Sheila L. Henry, AISD's executive director of high schools.
Some parents took to social media to express their frustration with the situation, stating the school did not notify them about the issues in a timely manner.
Melinni Taylor has two children who attend Bowie High School. She learned about the issues through a parents' Facebook page, followed by texts from her children. The district was the last to alert her.
"It would help parents to know what's going on. That's one thing. You have the facts. I'd be able to tell my, my child what's happening, you know, whether or not they should stay home or if they should go to school. Help me to make the best kind of choices and informed choices," Taylor said.
Other concerned parents told KVUE they hope school leaders learn from this experience and communicate more quickly and efficiently in the future.
Officials with AISD said they had many teams on-site throughout the day Tuesday to make sure everyone was taken care of.
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