Dunwoody High School is moving students, teachers and most staff to asynchronous virtual learning for the rest of the week after discolored water turned up in parts of the building. Essential 12-month staff will remain on site. School officials pointed to water valve issues as the cause, while a Department of Watershed Management crew was on site Wednesday trying to pin down exactly what went wrong.
Classes will shift to remote instruction on Thursday and Friday, according to WSB-TV, which reported that water valve issues resulted in discolored water in a few areas of the building. Students and parents also supplied Atlanta News First with images and video of black and brown water at the school.
The same water trouble also reached the building's HVAC systems. The station's report notes that the affected HVAC units have since been repaired and are now operational and cooling, easing one of the more immediate concerns for a campus still holding in-person operations in some capacity.
Conflicting Accounts On What Triggered the Problem
Exactly what caused the valve issues is where accounts diverge. School officials initially attributed the discolored water to a nearby water main break, but per the same WSB-TV account, DeKalb County government said the issue was not a water main break. Both versions remain on the record, with no single explanation yet confirmed by both sides.
This isn't the first time a Vermack Road water main has disrupted Dunwoody High. In a prior incident reported by Appen Media, an overnight break at 4712 Vermack Road knocked out water service at the school and forced roughly 2,000 students to relocate about 4.5 miles across I-285 to Chamblee High School. That outage was resolved quickly, with county officials saying the break was fixed shortly before 1 p.m. and Dunwoody High students back on their own campus by 1:15 p.m. the same day. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution account of the same outage described crews fixing a broken 12-inch main on Vermack Road and restoring water service to nearby Dunwoody neighborhoods.
Bottled Water, Open Restrooms as Repairs Continue
For now, bottled water is available on site for students and staff, including in the kitchen, and restrooms remain operational, the station reported. Classes continued as normal through the rest of Wednesday before the shift to remote learning takes effect Thursday.
Before- and after-school activities and events scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday are expected to continue even as core instruction moves online.
Portable Classroom Concerns Addressed Separately
Alongside the water issues, questions had been raised about a substance found in the school's portable classrooms. School officials said they have confirmed that the substance in question is not mold, though air-quality testing will still be conducted to further assess the environment, the same WSB-TV report states.
Moisture issues in school buildings have broadly been linked to delayed maintenance, and the Environmental Protection Agency separately discusses moisture and mold problems in temporary structures. With the Department of Watershed Management still investigating the source of the discolored water, families are left waiting for a clearer picture of when normal operations will fully resume.
