Broken water pump forces closure of two Peninsula schools

Students at Purdy Elementary School and Peninsula High School got an early start to the weekend Friday after a water pumping station serving the schools failed, forcing the cancellation of classes.

Peninsula High principal Dave Goodwin alerted parents to the situation via email about 9:50 a.m.

“We have experienced a water outage due to a main Peninsula Light water pump not working,” Goodwin wrote. “Due to not having water available for students any longer today, we are being forced to close school early at 10:45 this morning. Buses will be transporting students home at that time.”

Officials expected the problem to be fixed in time for school to be in session Monday.

The Peninsula School District posted an alert on its website informing parents at both schools of the problem.

Later Friday, Goodwin announced through an email that all activities scheduled at Peninsula High over the weekend were either being canceled or moved.

“The ‘Seahawk Cheer Challenge’ is being moved to Gig Harbor High School and will start at the same time,” Goodwin said. “The PHS Drama production, ‘A Renaissance Play,’ is being postponed with the new date and time to be announced soon.”

All other schools in the district remained on their normal schedules.

The cause of the pump failure was not immediately known.

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 10:20 AM with the headline "Broken water pump forces closure of two Peninsula schools."