The wind howls deafeningly outside the high school as students attempt to focus on other things besides the tumultuous weather. Suddenly, a deafening creak reverberates through the ceiling as a portion of the roof caves in allowing the rain to directly enter the building. Wind speeds rarely reach the levels that Holland experienced this month, and they impacted the South building with full force.
“There was one time during sixth hour as they were putting patches on and they were running drills that we could not even hear each other talk.” Math Instructor Shanna Meyer said. Meyer was only one of the teachers that experienced the effects of the roof leak at full force two weeks ago. Her classroom suffered immensely from water damage and there was no possible way that she would be able to hold class in that environment. “My initial reaction was the water dripping off the ceiling tile right behind my proxima and it started dripping down it and through the outlet. That made me nervous for electrocution purposes. Then throughout that day as I was in another room I kept coming back to check on stuff and every time I came back there was another spot where water was dripping through.” Meyer said. The horrendous storms further impacted Meyer’s classroom, and there are still noticeable signs of damage in the ceiling. However, she did not allow the weather to affect her lesson plans and she managed to stay right on schedule. “We just had to be flexible adaptors. We had to switch the room and make the best of the situation. We still got our content in because it was anti-bullying day so the nice thing is that I didn’t need to have any actual materials with me for that particular day.” Meyer said. Meyer certainly was surprised when she walked into her classroom and saw water dripping from the ceiling two weeks ago, but despite the problem, she still managed to stay on schedule.
Just one door down from Mrs. Meyer’s classroom, Math Instructor Laurel Soto experienced massive water damage. When she walked into her classroom on Wednesday, November 24, she witnessed a small waterfall down her back wall. “I was surprised. I had some posters up there that got destroyed by the water.” Soto said. Fortunately, the posters were the only victims of the enormous water damage. She also refused to let water damage slow her down, and she managed to stay on schedule despite the unexpected turn of events. “The main day that we had water damage was the day that we had anti-bullying lessons so it wasn’t that big of an inconvenience. The kids were flexible.” Soto said. The water damage definitely impacted Soto’s classroom the most, and her day was a bit of an adventure after she first saw the water damage. “That day, we had to move to a different room to have class every hour of the day, so obviously that’s sort of a hassle because the kids don’t know where to go and I have to move materials down there,” Soto said. Soto’s classes were completely shaken up due to the different locations and resources available. However, instead of complaining about her miserable luck, she took advantage of the ability to transfer to different rooms.
The enormous storms two weeks ago caused the water damage throughout the South building. Unfortunately, the damage proved so severe that the entire roof at south has to be replaced to repair the leak. Meyer and Soto were only two of the many teachers that were affected by the damage, but despite the severity of the situation, they managed to stay right on schedule.