Classes at Maranacook Community High School and Maranacook Community Middle School in Readfield have been canceled for Friday because of a water pump failure, according to the school district website.
Superintendent Donna Wolfrom had said Thursday that she anticipated the two schools would be open as usual Friday, but that changed later, and the cancellation announcement was posted.
High school sports events, however, were expected to take place as usual Friday.
Adult education classes scheduled for Thursday night were canceled, as was a postsecondary-school planning meeting scheduled for parents of juniors and seniors.
The district’s website at www.maranacook.org indicated the latter meeting would be rescheduled.
Some sports practices were held Thursday because there are portable toilets at the fields.
Wolfrom said the water problem was detected early Thursday afternoon around lunchtime.
“It wasn’t an issue for lunch,” she added. “We were able to serve everybody lunch.”
She said the school’s director of operations immediately called for help tracing the problem.
“At first we did wonder whether our well was dry,” she said, but that was not the case. “We are pumping water, but it’s a limited amount and they are working to find out why.”
She said Thursday’s dismissal might have occurred a few minutes earlier than usual.
“We had discussed letting school out early, but by the time we contacted bus drivers and got the drivers in, it would have been the end of school anyway,” she said.
She also said there was no safety problem.
“The sprinkler system is attached to a different batch of water,” Wolfrom said. “It was an inconvenience.”
She said teachers were instructed to walk the students to the portable toilets. Wolfrom said she had no information about any distribution of bottled water. The schools serve about 600 students in grades 6 through 12.
The elementary schools in Regional School Unit 38, the Maranacook Area Schools, are unaffected and will have class as usual Friday.
Last June, a lack of water forced administrators to cancel classes for a day at Readfield Elementary School, in the same district.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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