THE SKY IS FALLING!

Last Monday, May 25th, I told the secretary at our school that there was a moisture spot on the ceiling in my room and I could hear dripping. So, she called M&O (Maintenance and Operations....also referred to by the staff as L&L...OR "LOOK AND LEAVE.") and they indeed came out and "looked" at it. By Friday nothing had been done and the problem had spread to the hall on the other side of my wall, creating a moisture mark on the ceiling there too.

It's been raining quite a bit, for almost 3 weeks now, here in Albuquerque (which is very odd for us...). It rained over the weekend too and when I came in to work today, the ceiling tile in my room and in the hall had collected so much moisture that they had both collapsed and made a mess on the floor. I also noticed that now the water was wicking across my ceiling and 8 or 9 other moisture spots had shown up. I told the secretary and she called M&O again. As 7 a.m. become 8 a.m. I started to hear water dripping again. I called the office once again and they decided to move me to another room, for the time being. As a lot of you may know, not an ideal learning situation for elementary students, who learn best in the environment that they have become accustomed to. Anyway...we left said room...might I add...not an easy task...trying to have all the kids carry all the things they will need, for the rest of the day, to a different location.

We did the best we could for the rest of the morning. At noon I went back down to my room and the 2 M&O guys were there, "looking" into the hole with a flash light....and I quote..."Lady, you've got a hole in your ceiling." Very politely I replied, "Yes, I know." Not so politely, I added, "And these other moisture spots have occurred over the past three days because you didn't do anything last week when you came out."  They didn't say anything and I left the room. 

I finished up the day and after the kids left, I went back to my room. The M&O guys weren't there, the dripping could still be heard, they had pulled down one of the crumbling tiles and made a mess on the floor and the clouds are gray and threatening. I made sure I put a bucket under the drip, moved the things I could and covered the things I couldn't move with trash bags.

Before I left for the day, I stopped by the principals office and we discussed the situation. They have been fighting to get a new roof for 2 years and they are very frustrated. In fact, last spring we had part of a ceiling collapse (Thank God , the kids had gone home for the day.) in a classroom too. The roof on our school is flat and the drains were clogged and had pooled. Gallons and gallons of water flooded the room. Computers, the rug, walls, books and a lot of the teacher's personal property were ruined. A blackboard actually fell off the wall. They had to tear the room down to the studs. The principal said to let him know if it wasn't fixed when I come in tomorrow and he will call the M&O guys' boss. 

I still have 3 more weeks to teach. I don't know how many days I'll be out of my room or when it will be fixed, but I'll let you know what I find tomorrow. I hope it's fixed quickly.