Baldwin-Whitehall's McAnnulty Elementary closed over boiler malfunction
Early Friday morning, prior to student arrivals at McAnnulty Elementary School in Baldwin-Whitehall School District as the teaching and professional staff began to arrive in the building, a malfunction was detected with one of the boilers in the building, according to a news release from the district.
Carrie Butler, Baldwin-Whitehall School District’s communications consultant, said the malfunction was detected due to a “burning gas-type smell.” She said that there was no fire.
According to the release, kindergarten and first-grade students were not in the building at the time and were temporarily kept on school buses before being re-routed to Whitehall Elementary School. All McAnnulty Elementary staff are on-site at Whitehall and have already begun “as meaningful a school day as they can,” Butler said.
Butler said that the malfunction has been fixed, but that first responders need to do an inspection of the air quality. Depending on when that happens, she said that students may finish the day at Whitehall Elementary.
Correspondance about the incident has been sent to all families in the district, and Butler said that as there are updates, those will be communicated with district parents as well.
Katie Green is a TribLive deputy managing editor, overseeing features as well as the Trib's weekly and monthly community newspapers and websites. A former magazine editor, she's serious about coffee, is a proponent of the Oxford comma and enjoys tracing her family tree when she has the time. She can be reached at kgreen@triblive.com.
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