Bishop Manogue Catholic high school was closed August 29th-30th, and will conduct virtual learning for the week of August 29th through September 9th due to a water line breaking on the south end of campus, resulting in considerable flooding in the academic wing. On Sunday, August 28th, a pipe suddenly burst at the school, causing severe water damage in 11 classrooms, specifically in the science and math wing. The school has not yet commented on the cause of the waterline break, but is issuing updates as the situation is being assessed.

William Ferrell, a junior from the class of 2024, arrived on campus last Sunday, August 28th, the morning of the flood, for his regularly scheduled tennis lesson. Upon his arrival, he noticed a pipe that had burst on campus, and was shocked by the severity of the water damage. He described the scene, “it looked like a fountain outside of the science wing”. Ferrell explained that he “thought the school was going to be closed for a while when [he] saw the fountain”. At that time, the school had not yet issued a statement pertaining to closing campus, but even from perceiving the amount of water flooding the yard of BMCHS, it was clear that the damage on campus was significant.

As of September 1st, extracurricular activities that do not meet in the academic wing will continue as scheduled. Teachers and coaches will communicate with students regarding whether practices have been impacted as a result of the damage at the school. Students are scheduled to continue virtual learning until Monday, September 12th when classes will resume on campus. In order to ensure adequate class time in lieu of a shortened class schedule on a virtual learning platform, BMCHS has also switched to a block schedule for the remainder of the fall semester. This means that there will no longer be 1-8 period days every Monday until the second semester of the school year. Additionally, according to the administrative officials at Bishop Manogue, classrooms are estimated to be fully restored by December. However, the majority of science and math classes have been temporarily moved to different rooms as the school works to repair classrooms in the academic wing. A full list of classroom changes has been released to BMCHS families via email, and further updates can be found in the new “Flood Update” section of the Weekly Wire. Updates will continue to be issued as the school assesses the damage specifically pertaining to the state of classes in the coming weeks.