As Honors and AP Biology teacher Emily Massey-Burmeister was recording a lesson video in her classroom for her AP Biology class, she heard commotion in the hallway, but decided to ignore it at first. It was not until water started to flow in from underneath her door that she realized there was a much bigger situation at play.
On Oct. 20 in Witmer Science Hall, maintenance was being conducted on an AC unit above the ceiling when a water pipe was accidentally hit, causing the pipe to burst and several inches of water to flood onto the floor. The leak caused water damage to the ceiling and walls, displacing students and teachers for a week.
“Classes had to be taught out of other people’s classrooms,” Massey-Burmeister said. “We were thankful for the space to be able to teach out of classrooms. However, not being in your own space tends to throw you off of your rhythm.”
Despite the hectic classroom changes, Massey-Burmeister continued to carry out her scheduled daily lesson plans with her Honors Biology students.
“With the freshmen, we were working on their projects, so I would say the most challenging part of that would be that they were bringing in items,” Massey-Burmeister said. “Since we couldn’t house them in my classroom, they had to be housed in other people’s classrooms, and in some cases had to be carried from room to room.”
She also found challenges when needing to relocate her AP Biology students, especially when carrying out labs in various classrooms.
“For the AP class, we had labs that were on the agenda,” Massey-Burmeister said. “With AP, there has to be a very set schedule to keep on track to finish throughout the course of the year. So it was hard to work some of those activities out of the rooms that we had been in.”
Teachers were not the only ones feeling the effects of being in a different setting; students felt the same. Sophomore and AP Biology student Sophia Scheinberg noted how the change impacted her learning.
“It was hard to focus because we were in a different environment,” Scheinberg said. “We had to change seating, and people could choose where they sat, which was distracting.”
Despite this, Massey-Burmeister noticed that other students did not mind the change.
“I think there were some students that were happy to be in different rooms because they appreciated the variety of being in different spaces,” Massey-Burmeister said.
Physics teacher Dr. Elmarie Mortimer was also affected by the pipe burst. In her classroom, at its highest point, the water reached up to three inches. Despite the situation she was in, she was extremely grateful for the school’s aid, specifically the maintenance department, throughout the incident.
“The amazing thing about Trinity Prep is that this is an amazing school to work with,” Mortimer said. “Our maintenance crew was fantastic. They said your classroom is impacted … By that Monday morning, we had a list of where we will teach … and the maintenance crew did everything.”
On Oct. 30, the displaced science teachers were all given the green light to move back into their classrooms with everything fixed, thankful that they were back in their own spaces.
Massey-Burmeister is happy to be back in her own classroom after having to move around from classroom to classroom; however, she is excited about what the future will hold for the science department in the new science center that is planned to be completed in the fall of 2026.
“Given the projections for the new science building, I think that there are wonderful things that are on the horizon once that building is built,” Massey-Burmeister said. “I am optimistic and looking forward to being in a new space when that space is ready.”
