Cherokee High School canceled classes Friday morning after a water main break in downtown Canton caused an outage on campus, district officials said.
The decision to close the school for the day was announced about 8:15 a.m.
“This break has affected several other schools and city officials do not expect a quick repair,” according to a post on the school’s website. “The CHS campus is too large to cover with available water buffalo systems, making it unsafe to operate schools today.”
Students who were already on campus were allowed to eat breakfast, but buses returned them home, the school said in the post.
In a news release, Canton City Manager Billy Peppers said the outage was caused by a break in a 10-inch line at the Bobby Bishop Water Treatment Plant downtown. The break caused a loss of water across much of the city, and there are areas of low pressure systemwide, he wrote.
“By 9 a.m., utility crews were able to isolate the break and are currently working to re-route and operate a pumping plan to bring water back into the system and begin refilling tanks,” the release said. " At this time, we do not know the full impact of water loss and cannot establish areas for boil water advisories. If you are without water, we are aware of the issue and are working to quickly resolve the situation.”
Because teachers and staff won’t be able to remain on Cherokee High’s campus amid the outage, no virtual instruction will be provided this afternoon, district officials said.
In an email, district spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby said officials are closely monitoring additional schools in the area to determine if they also need to be closed.
“Should a closure be needed, we would immediately notify parents of students’ at that school by email, text and phone call,” she said. Notices would also be posted on the district’s website and Facebook page, as well as the websites for any of the affected schools.
Three of Cherokee County’s six high schools were already closed to in-person learning following an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in the first two weeks of the new school year.
District officials announced Sunday that Creekview High would shift to online classes through the end of the month after 500 students at the Canton school were quarantined and 25 tested positive. Two other high schools — Etowah and Woodstock — closed their doors earlier this month after a rash of infections there, AJC.com previously reported.
Etowah High made national headlines after a photo of dozens of maskless students huddled together at the start of the school year went viral.
More than a quarter of the 1,800 students taking in-person classes at Creekview were directed to quarantine over the weekend, and district officials said they expect the number of quarantined students to “significantly increase” once pending tests are returned.
“We understand these closings create hardships and are disappointing to students who want to learn in-person as well as their families, but these are necessary measures to avoid potential spread within our schools,” the district said.
While Cherokee County teachers are required to wear masks, face coverings are optional for more than 31,000 students whose families opted for in-person learning at the start of the year.
— Please return to AJC.com for updates.
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