DON'T BLAME THE SCHOOLS FOR SECOND SOMS WATER MAIN BREAK

Monday's closure of South Orange Middle School due to a water main break -- for the second time in less than three months -- was due to a water company issue, not a school district problem, according to Business Administrator Cheryl Schneider.

When we asked about the trouble she said via email:

Both issues at SOMS have been with the water company having to do repairs, not the district.  We asked them to shut off the water so that we could address some necessary repairs within the building which were being done while the building was closed.  They had trouble with the shut off valve when it came time to turn the water back on.  Without water in the school building we could not open school.  Unfortunately the water company could not schedule their repair until (Monday) morning and so we were on their schedule. They are estimating that they can do their repairs and have the water back on this afternoon.

Let's hope it doesn't happen again.