Evanston Township High School closed early Wednesday morning because of a nearby water main break. A message to ETHS families delivered by email and automated phone calls said that the building would have no water or heat within hours and students would be sent home at 9:15 a.m.
ETHS conducted asynchronous e-learning for the remainder of the day, the message said.
“This morning, shortly before the start of the school day, ETHS learned of a water main break at Lake and Dodge,” Superintendent Eric Witherspoon wrote to families and staff members Wednesday morning. “As a result, ETHS District 202 will dismiss students at 9:15 am today, February 9. All after-school practices, activities and events have been canceled.”
In response to an initial request from the RoundTable for more information, ETHS Director of Communications Takumi Iseda said Evanston city officials were working throughout the day to fix the issue in the hope of avoiding further disruptions to school this week.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Iseda confirmed that the city had resolved the problem.
“The City of Evanston has completed the water main repairs and the ETHS building will be brought back to full operation tonight,” Iseda said. “School will be in session tomorrow as scheduled.”
I was a teacher in Chicago. I was at one school when the city shut off the water to the building for 3 days while work was being done on the water system. The school was not shut done. We continued to teach and the children to learn while there was no water in the bathrooms or drinking fountains. I’m sure that was a health violation but nothing was done to alleviate the problem.