Drain issues at VVE cause BCSD back to drawing board

Story has been updated.

BONNERS FERRY — Drain issues at Valley View Elementary causes the Boundary County School Board to plan quickly to make repairs and investments in the school.

The week of Oct. 17, sinks in the girls bathroom backed up into the floor drain, spilled across the bathroom floor and into the hallway, Boundary County Superintendent Jan Bayer said.

A local plumbing company came in and snaked the drain and a substantial amount of rust was coming out. The first snake was broken in the effort to get through the blockage. The sinks are now draining.

Michelle Halter, Valley View principal, said young girls were using the sink when the incident happened.

It was a lot of rusty metal and dirt, Bayer said. She added the district is concerned there will be a catastrophic failure in the plumbing lines if the issue isn’t addressed.

Replacing the pipe was one of the many issues that was to be addressed in the proposed school bond to replace the school. The bond failed twice, the first time in March and again in August.

While the school bond failed twice, Bayer said the district still needs to repair the school.

The school board voted unanimously to approve the architect firm to bring back proposals for updating the Bonners Ferry High School bleachers and Valley View Elementary.

Bayer told the Herald that the district is in the planning stages of updating the bleachers at the football field due to safety concerns. She added that the bleachers were built in the 1970s and need to be ADA compliant.

By having the architect firm creating proposals, Bayer said the district will have options for repairs. She added she didn’t recommend that the district go for a school bond at this time, because it will cost the district more in the long run.