UPDATED: No Water Closes Decatur Schools

UPDATE II: The Decatur Minute is also regularly posting updates on the status of the water main break from DeKalb County.

UPDATE: Here are links to the AJC story and the Decaturish story on the water outage

CSD just sent out this email blast…

At this time the City of Decatur is currently experiencing low to no water pressure due to a water main break on Columbia Drive. All of our schools are currently without water or experiencing low water pressure. We are asking parents to please pick your child up as soon as possible

47 thoughts on “UPDATED: No Water Closes Decatur Schools”


      1. The only press I have found so far:
        http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/decatur-children-sent-home-from-school-in-water-em/njpRH/

        And where I sit, “upstream” from Columbia Drive, our water pressure is unaffected. Have to wonder where pressure is down… OA is closer to the tower than my house.

        1. I am fairly close to Columbia and had very reduced water pressure this morning, but it seems better now. I think the pressure problems may be intermittent.

          1. It was not intermittent in Scottdale. From 9am until roughly 1:30pm we could not flush toilets at my office. However at my house (which is upstream from the break) I had close to normal usage during lunch.

  6. Thinking about this some more: any reason the buses couldn’t be used for some of the transportation? I realize that it takes 3 rounds of bus trips to do all the schools, and meanwhile kids have to go to the bathroom, but that same wait will occur for kids whose parents work on the other side of town and it takes an hour for them to pick up their kids. Not saying that the universal robo-call of “Come get your students” isn’t appropriate but perhaps buses could supplement? Just food for thought for planning for next time…

    1. Do you really want buses dropping off elementary students when their parents aren’t home? Speaking only for myself, but I prefer the school keep and care for my children until I (or someone I designate) am able to pick them up. Buses might work for DHS, but not for the majority of the students.

      1. Yeah, you’re right that this might be too complex. The high school is the only group in which almost all students (except certain disabled students) are mature enough to go home to an empty house. A lot of middle schoolers can too, but not all families feel comfortable with that, especially at the 6th grade level. And most high schoolers, and many middle schoolers, walk instead of taking the bus. I guess a short period of gridlock at each school is just the way it has to be.

    2. I understood from my high schoolers that their dismissal was held off until the buses could come. So maybe the problem is one of clear communication?

        1. I understand they started with the upper grades in the hopes it would help reduce the number of younger kids coming home to “empty” houses.

    1. It’s DeKalb County so I’m sure they’ll issue an Advisory right around the time any possible threat has already been addressed.

      1. You took the words right off of my fingers! I immediately thought the same thing when I first saw the news about the water main break on Twitter. Great (cynical) minds… 🙂

  12. While waiting in the RMS lobby for two 6th graders to be released, noticed several high school students had walked over to pick up younger siblings. My 10th grader decided to walk home instead of waiting for a ride from mom.

    1. Re siblings picking up siblings: awww! What good big brothers and sisters they are!

    2. My HSer was one of those. But my RMSer decided to wait and get released with all her friends a little later instead. Priorities of the tween.

  14. Evidently Fernbank Elementary at old Avondale Middle is also affected. After school care and other after school activities are cancelled. Children will be dismissed at normal dismissal time of 2:30 and can stay in their classrooms until 3:30.

  16. I have a child at CH and didn’t get the robo call. Teacher sent an email and called the class. When I asked at the desk about the robo call they directed me to CSD offices. So I called and had no idea who I should talk to. The operator told me all my info was correct and had no idea why I didn’t get the robo call. Anyone else not get it? And as far as tomorrow goes, will the website be updated to check for school closings? Just don’t want to have to get the kids up early if I don’t have to.

    1. According to Decaturish, some families at WP got multiple calls and others got none. Sounds like this will be good practice before the 2015 snowpocalypse. We got multiple robocalls on multiple phones plus multiple emails but we like the redundancy and are probably on every listserv and phone tree that CSD has ever had after all these years.

    2. I got FOUR calls for two kids. I think they had a bit of a misfunction with the robo-caller.

    3. I got a robocall from Oakhurst Elementary which stated that the call was from Winnona Park. I also got a CSD-wide robocall and a personal call from my child’s Pre-K teacher. No robocalls directly from College Heights. I think it’s safe to say that the robocall system was a bit taken by surprise by our little water emergency today. Also of note, the water service at my house is just fine (although we are not drinking any at this point!). I live one block from FAVE and less than a mile from both College Heights and Oakhurst.

    4. I work from home and I got 6 calls each on my landline and cell for 3 kids. The first 2 said Winnona Park, even though the second was from DHS. Then I got a cryptic “early dismissal email” that said “Our school is currently without water” but didn’t know which of the 3 schools it was from. Texted my high schooler and he replied they were being dismissed.

      When I finally got word that all schools were being dismissed I went to FAVE–the check-out dismissal process was very smooth–very impressed.

      RMS dismissal was very confusing.

      1. The message was not very clear. But my walking kids at DHS and RMS were released without my interference. At times like these, I do appreciate being able to text my kids and their friends to get a broader picture of the situation!

      2. Yeah, the RMS dismissal was confusing because I didn’t know if they would just let the kids go, or whether a parent had to come claim them. My kid walks there and home every day on his own so I assumed they would tell the kids to do what they do at normal dismissal, but then my kid called me from a friend’s phone and handed the phone to his teacher, who asked me for permission to let him walk home. So glad I didn’t have to go over there and get in what was surely an epic line of cars.

        I got multiple robo calls too, but I’m not sure any of the messages ever clearly stated that ALL schools were closing.

        1. My Renfroe kid (a daily walker) was released without any permission from me. I appreciate that I was told (despite the four interruptions on my conf call) that the schools were dismissing early, but it was never clear whether I needed to do anything. I did nothing, and my kids (DHS and RMS) and their friends easily made their way to my home. Thankfully my conf call was done before the hungry masses descended…

          1. I think my kid was among the hungry masses that descended on you today. Tall, skinny, braces….;-) I appreciate you having him there so often! Feel free to tell him to go home if he eats too much.

            1. 🙂 I do have to restock for yurting this weekend after the dozen teens/tweens came in and foraged. But happy to have them all here!

  20. RMS was a nightmare. Cars everywhere, streets impassable. Luckily my child has a phone and turned it on, otherwise who knows how I would have found her. The first notification I got was from DHS and I didn’t worry b/c my high schooler can walk home (or to the square, to be precise). Glennwood seemed to have everything under control. Very organized, everyone very calm! Thank you Dianna (aka #1 Principal!)!

    Buses arrived at the schools but only after a million parents were already there. I saw one pull up at RMS as I was leaving, and then saw one pull up at Glennwood a few minutes later.

    1. re: “RMS was a nightmare. Cars everywhere, streets impassable. Luckily my child has a phone and turned it on, otherwise who knows how I would have found her.”

      It’s a holiday in Cambodia!

  22. Does anyone know if F.Ave crowned a spelling bee champion before school was declared dismissed? If not, Winona Park stud calls redo.

    2. 5 students were still left when they stopped things because of the water outage. I saw somebody writing down info about exactly where they were in the proceedings–who had gone last spelling a word–so I presume they’ll restart the bee at the place they left off.

    1. My RMS student reported that realized they did not have water when they went to get water for a science experience – that was 1st or 2nd period.

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