Water damage reported at new Charlestown Elementary School days before opening

CHARLESTOWN, Ind. (WDRB) — A little more than a week before the first day of school on July 31, Greater Clark County Schools' brand new elementary school in Charlestown is facing an unexpected issue — water damage.

The $55 million campus is supposed to open its doors to students for the first time next week, but fans and dehumidifiers were spotted being hauled out of the building this week, signaling a clean-up effort is underway.

At Tuesday’s Greater Clark Board of School Trustees meeting, WDRB asked members if they were aware of flooding at the new school.

"Anyone want to address the flooding at the new school?" WDRB's Richard Essex asked at the close of the meeting.

Each board member walked past without offering a comment. District Superintendent Mark Laughner was not in attendance, and the board president left immediately after the meeting ended.

Outside the new school building, contractor Shawn Oliver and another Servpro employee were seen leaving with equipment commonly used to dry water-damaged areas.

"Was there water in the school?" WDRB asked.

"A little bit, yeah," Oliver replied. "I'm not sure (how much) -- this is my first day."

Sources told WDRB the school's library suffered water damage. Our drone captured footage over the building, but no crews were working on the roof at the time.

Oliver said Servpro had already been on site for a few days, and were still working.

"No, not yet. I think we’ve got another day to go drying out, and then all the reconstruction part," Oliver said.

As for where the water came from? Oliver didn't know. "I couldn’t say. I was just here to monitor the drying levels and take out what’s dry," he said.

One board member told WDRB off-camera that "everything was great," but provided no further details.

In a written statement sent to WDRB News Wednesday morning, Laughner said he has been out sick and apologized for the delay in answering our questions. He said recent heavy rain led to the flooding.

"We had a roof drain that could not hold the 6.5 inches of rain that fell in the two-hour period that evening," he said in the statement. "Our contractor and engineers are working on a solution for the problem and will correct the issue at no cost to the district. Everything will be corrected and ready by the first day of school."

Laughner's note did not provide details about the extent of the damage.

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