Evacuation at Charlotte Central School

Broken pipe leaves Charlotte students out in the cold

The Charlotte Central School is reevaluating its evacuation policy after students were forced to stand out in the cold Tuesday morning.

Around 8:30 a.m., the fire alarms in the building went off when water started flowing from a broken pipe. Under school policy, the 470 students at the pre-K through eighth-grade school were immediately evacuated to the athletic field behind the building. The snow on the field is about a foot deep. Most students were not prepared to stand outside in the deep snow or in the cold for an extended period of time.

As a precaution, 25 students were checked out for exposure to the cold.

"My colleague, our co-principal, Greg Marino, myself and my team will look at this, we will debrief after the incident, and look at this to see how we can improve the process based on the cold weather," said Audrey Boutaugh, the co-principal at Charlotte Central School.

None of the students who were checked out for exposure needed any medical treatment.

Classes and all events at the school were canceled for the rest of the day while the water pipes are repaired.

Matt Henson - WCAX News