On Monday, December 8th 2025, we discovered a situation at Lybrook Elementary that is quite concerning. The heaters in that building circulate hot water from the building's boiler. They've been doing so for more than 60 years. While the boiler for the building is in decent shape, the individual classroom heaters are as old as the building (mid 1960s).
The pipes circulating the hot water tend to freeze in cold temperatures. While this shouldn't happen, it's happening at Lybrook because the louvered dampers that circulate fresh air from the outside --dampers that are meant to close when the weather outside gets cold-- don't always close when they're supposed to, since they're so old.
Additionally, repairs to the closed-loop system are difficult because the water flow pipes were installed without individual shutoff valves. As such, when a pipe bursts, the whole system has to be shut down so repairs can be made. In a more modern system, individual heater units would have their own shutoff valves, allowing them to be individually serviced.
On the morning of December 8th, after assessing the situation, the district entered into a half-day/early release protocol to allow for the water (distributing heat throughout Lybrook) to be shut off and the system repaired.
These repairs weren't "sure fixes" and this problem will continue to occur in cold weather. Additionally, the flooding that occurred because of the burst pipes created some carpet damage and other property damage.
We have estimates that each individual room heater costs about $40,000 to replace.
See the pictures below for more details.
