By Sue Fagalde Lick
Flooded buildings and safety concerns for commuting teachers and students caused West Valley College to cancel all day and evening classes Dec. 12 at the peak of last week's storms.
WVC interim president Sam Schauerman said the administration building was the hardest hit. The board room, the area around the chancellor's office, and the business, human resources and WVC Foundation offices were inundated with water. Elsewhere on campus, aging roofs gave way to isolated leaks, he said.
West Valley-Mission Community College District Chancellor Rose Tseng was out of town, so Schauerman made the decision to cancel classes at both WVC and Mission College. The main concern was not the flooding, but the safety of students and staff getting to the campuses, Schauerman said. Many of the teachers live on the coast or in other somewhat-distant locations. Even those who live nearby had problems getting to school. A teacher from Cupertino was waylaid by flooding on Highway 85, he said. High winds made it difficult to stay on the road.
"It just didn't make a lot of sense to jeopardize a lot of people," Schauerman said.
Some students who did come to the college were unhappy about classes being canceled, but Schauerman said, "It's a little difficult to say you're going to teach four students when you normally have 15."
Most of the teachers and classified (non-teaching) staff were sent home Tuesday morning. Staff at the student services center stayed until noon because some students remained on campus, Schauerman said. The administrators stayed until the school lost power at 2:50 p.m.
The administration building nearly flooded during last year's storms, too. Schauerman said a drain in front of the building usually can handle the rain. The water runs toward the student services building, takes a left turn and eventually flows into the creek. How-ever, tree roots stopped up the drainage system and caused the water to overflow. Crews pumped the water out and removed the roots, allowing the water to run freely into the creek. The college leaders are now considering the possibility of making tree-root removal an annual pre-rainy season activity, he said.
The college district does not have money in its budget to replace the leaky roofs, which are almost 30 years old, Schauerman said.
On Wednesday, WVC staff was working to dry out the carpets and get rid of the odors in the administration building--especially since a Christmas party was scheduled to be held in the board room Thursday afternoon.
Some classrooms were also too wet to use and students were moved to other rooms, he said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, December 20, 1995.
©1995 Metro Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.