Jersey City school damaged by Ida evacuated due to lack of heat

Tropical Storm Ida is partly to blame for students at a Jersey City school being pulled from their classrooms on Monday morning.

News 12 Staff

Nov 8, 2021, 10:02 PM

Updated 899 days ago

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Tropical Storm Ida is partly to blame for students at a Jersey City school being pulled from their classrooms on Monday morning.
About 600 students at Public School 14 were bused to other buildings because there wasn’t any heat inside the building. The boiler was damaged in a flood from the storm more than two months ago. The district says that making repairs has not been easy.
The students were taken to Public Schools 12 and 29.
“We do as in our own homes. If our neighbor is displaced, we make room for them,” says Deputy Superintendent Dr. Norma Fernandez.
Fernandez says that the district used auditoriums, gyms and libraries at the other schools for classrooms. She says that the supply chain issues are to blame for delays in repairing the boiler.
“The boiler room was underwater, so it sustained significant damage,” she says. “And our crew and vendors have been working on it for over a week. They realized we needed an additional part.”
She says that the part is not currently available.
News 12 New Jersey spoke with at least one parent who was concerned because the school did not tell her where her 6-year-old son was going.
“I’m OK with them moving him. I just don’t feel OK at the fact I don’t know where my child is. Say if something happened, how would I get to them or know where they are,” says Michelle Best.
The district said an email was sent at 9 a.m., but Best says she did not receive it.
By 2 p.m., eight busloads of students came back to P.S. 15 so they could finish the day in their own classroom and be dismissed to their parents.
The district says that if the weather doesn’t heat up overnight, it is possible the students will go through the same routine on Tuesday.
Fernandez says that the vendors have promised the repairs would be made and the heat would be back on by Wednesday. Ida damaged all but two of Jersey City’s 45 schools.


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