As students at Toll Gate High School continue their second week of virtual learning, Warwick’s administration is saying they need to have a “proactive plan” for any future school infrastructural failures.

Initially, the closure was only announced for the week of Feb. 26, but Superintendent Lynn Dambruch said that it had to continue into a second week due to extensive repairs being necessary.

“The materials in some of these classrooms affected, they’re a total loss,” she said.

The school went virtual due to a heating unit  leak that occurred at 6 p.m. on Feb. 25, according to security cameras at the school. It went unnoticed until staff began to arrive on Monday morning.

Water from the leak caused damage to the floor due to its high temperature, which led to the WPS’ Buildings and Grounds department replacing them. During that process, they found asbestos under the school’s floor tiles, further complicating repairs and necessitating an abatement for the school.

Dambruch did not yet have an estimate for how much repairs would cost.

Further complicating these repairs, according to Assistant Superintendent Bill McCaffrey, was a transformer failure in the library on Tuesday. While that was an easier fix, it still took additional time and resources, and helped cement the longer closure..

“That slowed down the process of the floor removal,” McCaffrey said. “We have a larger area to clean up now as a result of that situation.”

In addition to the moving company, Dambruch said that Single Source Disaster Recovery Specialists, Inc. is assisting with repairs to the school. The heating unit, McCaffrey said, according to McCaffrey, has already been fixed.

Toll Gate’s B building has been the epicenter of the damage, while the A building has seen relatively little in terms of damage.

Special education students returned to in-person learning on Monday. Dambruch said that those students are in the Warwick Area Career and Technical Center for their classes this week.

“[We’re] coordinating with food services and transportation to make sure we have an efficient transition for the kids that are back,” McCaffrey said.

Toll Gate’s closure is the third to occur in Warwick’s high schools this school year due to infrastructural issues, and easily the longest. In early December, Pilgrim students were sent home early due to a gas leak in the school’s kitchen, which led to the replacement of one of its ovens. Later that month, Toll Gate’s roof membrane was ripped off by the storm that led to the second-highest flooding in the recorded history of the Pawtuxet River, leading to multiple days of distance learning.

With the high school buildings aging, the light at the end of the tunnel for Warwick Public Schools has been the construction of two new high schools. Those, however, will not be ready for another few school years at least. Construction is slated to start in June.

“We need these new schools yesterday,” McCaffrey said.

Asked about the level of concern that similar incidents could cause more closures, Dambruch said that the school department has to be prepared and more closely monitor infrastructure in Warwick’s schools.

Dambruch and McCaffrey said that they are both determined to get students back in Toll Gate by March 11, even if minor repairs still need to be completed.

“We want to bring the students back to school with the understanding that there might be a few ceiling tiles that haven’t been replaced yet, maybe a few floor tiles,” Dambruch said. “But it’s our priority to get students back at school because we know distance learning is not as good.”