More than a year after historic floods, Murphy Elementary repairs nearly finished
More than a year after historic floods caused some $3.3 million in damage at Murphy Elementary School, the Round Lake Park school is almost ready to reopen, better than ever.
Last week, workers installed new floors on the lower level, one of the remaining tasks - along with installing new furniture - before classes resume Aug. 15.
"We've still got a ways to go, but we'll make it," Round Lake Area Unit District 116 Operations Supervisor Carl Tredway said.
The new school year promises to be vastly different from the previous year, when students, teachers and administrators had to make do without a gym, a cafeteria, a library, a computer room and four classrooms. The theme for the year was "turning lemons into lemonade," and the staff said the entire school worked together to make the best of the situation.
Gym classes were conducted outside when the weather was nice and in traditional classrooms when it wasn't. Students ate lunch at their desks and selected books to borrow from a temporary library stocked with donated books and set up in a hallway.
"They rolled with a lot of punches," District 116 Chief Operations Officer Mary Lamping said of the community. "It's certainly not been a standard year, and, really, everybody from the board down all worked hard together."
The school's lower level tended to flood when it rained. It was such a regular occurrence that when Principal Phil Georgia was informed by a custodian July 11, 2017, that the school had flooded, Georgia said he brought his Shop-Vac from home to help clean up. He arrived that morning to find about 18 inches of water inside the building.
"Once I saw it, I was like, 'yeah, the Shop-Vac isn't going to do anything,'" Georgia said.
The flooding was much worse than usual because the village equipment that usually pumps water into a reservoir north of campus on Greenwood Drive had failed.
So the water kept coming. Georgia said it took about three days for it to rise to its highest point - about 4 feet - and another three days to pump it out.
The floodwaters left grime and mud on nearly every surface. A massive dehumidifier was installed to blast hot air throughout the building to help dry it out.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Johnston said he's submitted $2.7 million in damage claims to the district's insurance company.
At first, officials were optimistic the building would be back to form by October or November 2017. Those hopes were dashed when workers discovered the amount of damage below the surface, including broken storm drains and drainage tiles and other problems that have made the 52-year-old building worse at handling rainwater.
The District 116 board adopted a $643,585 plan to fix those problems and install pumps so the district won't have to rely on the village's system.
Tredway said the new pumps are designed to move a lot of water.
"The building will probably never flood again unless we get a monsoon of rain for three weeks," he said.
Flood prevention isn't the only area of the school that's been improved.
Instead of simply restoring the library and computer room, district leaders decided to create modern learning facilities.
A 16-member committee of parents and district employees was created to tackle the upgrade last summer. After visiting some modern school libraries, the committee developed a plan during a pair of four-hour meetings and dubbed the creation "Limitless Learning Commons."
Murphy Elementary's LLC will have modular, mobile furniture and new technology, including iPads, Apple TVs and more.
And the large room that serves as the gym and cafeteria will have new tables and a giant curtain to divide the space in half. That means Murphy can be like every other district school and run a gym class and a lunch period simultaneously, Georgia said.