Hallways became filled with the sound of students’ voices as they slowly started to leave their classes on Nov. 1, 2021. 

The district had sent out an email to parents and a blast on social media that due to a pipe burst on campus, there were no more working bathrooms or running water in the academic building. This allowed all absences to be excused and students were ecstatic that they could dodge yet another eight-hour day of school.

This is just one of three occurrences that led to the constant jokes about broken water pipes and a new reputation of an unsanitary school.

As the day came to an end, a large portion of the student body had left campus. While the day was optional for all Bowie students and wasn’t going to impact their attendance for final incentives, AISD encouraged students to stay at school and continue learning. 

“I did hear that the bathrooms weren’t working so I did not go to the bathroom for the entire school day because I didn’t want to walk to the athletic building,” sophomore Lauren Riegler. “I didn’t hear it was as big of a problem as it was, I personally think that the staff was trying to keep the low end so students didn’t just up and leave.” 

Students were not the only ones impacted by the water leak events. All staff, including teachers, were also affected as their students were missing and they didn’t have a bathroom to utilize. Some are still dealing with the prolonged consequences of students leaving their classes for three days. 

“I think that having the water leak really messed up a lot of teachers in terms of our planning and the way we were set up to do things,” world history teacher Kiersten Berton said. “I know that I have one class that is extremely behind because I couldn’t teach them for three days because of the water situation.”

Once the news broke to the parents about the water leak situation, there were various opinions that were made about the situation. Some parents made Facebook Groups dedicated to posting updates on the water leak situation. Others were calling the front office, waiting for a response from the administration about the issue and its solutions. 

“Well, the students obviously missed a lot of learning time which I know caused a lot of confusion,” parent Susan Riegler.  “It was very frustrating, as a parent. I was mainly frustrated with the staff because if there was something they could have done to fix the water leak ahead of time that would have made the situation less chaotic.”

With the formation of a new athletic building, fine arts building, and a parking garage, but faulty pipes, several parents have brought up concerns as to why the funding didn’t go to fix the piping issue on campus. This funding was established through the 2017 Bond created by AISD for over $1,050,984,000 dollars. Matias Segura is the Chief of Operations for AISD and worked with Bowie administration and Austin ISD for the bond’s project plans and construction. 

 “Bowie was built in 1987 and because of its size there are miles and miles of old pipes beneath the buildings and in these systems circulate cold water, hot water, drinkable water, and wastewater,” Segura said. “Now to replace the pipes you have to go beneath the buildings or you have to dig up. The systems and we can’t really do that while schools are in session. If we did it with school in session we wouldn’t be able to have class and we would have to do it in the summertime and that’s actually a very short time to do any work.”

When the bond was passed on Nov. 7, 2017, 72 percent of Austin voters passed on the bond to focus on updating the learning spaces for AISD students in over 15 schools. Some of the key projects in the bond included constructing new or modernized campus facilities, improving facilities to address overcrowding and districtwide improvements to technology for teachers and students and transportation.

“The Bond money has it written into law that this money can be used for this specific project and so the money is spent for the new buildings that were decided on four years ago. Would it be really cool that we could take some of that money and use it on the academic building’s plumbing? Yeah, but we can’t.” Berton said.

 A Bond is created by a school district and proposed to get money for certain projects. The most recent 2017 Bond included the construction of the athletic facility and fine art building on the Bowie campus.

“Bowie should invest in bathrooms and weatherproofing the whole building because of increased weather volatility due to climate change,” senior Caroline Rasmussen. “The only thing to add is that Biden’s infrastructure bill might help the problem.”

One of the main instigators toward the dysfunctioning of the water system is from the winter freeze, during February of this year. Since then the system’s pipes have been weakening and continuing to cause more issues.

“The AISD district took on about 16 million dollars in water breaks, water damage, and damage to the boilers, especially after the February freeze last year,” Segura said. “This includes the HVAC units going down because water expands and it freezes and destroys the system inside it.” 

Although it is nearly impossible for schools to do big projects without a bond, there are often questions and misunderstandings about how an AISD bond truly works, especially how a bond is created in correspondence to a school and their needs. 

“The bond is really a mechanism that allows institutions to give us money and that we pay them back over time,” Segura said. “Think about a credit card or a loan to buy a house. We take this opportunity and money to go and make these improvements. The bond is really a mechanism that allows institutions to give us money and that we pay them back over time. 

Currently, the AISD staff is currently in the process of finding solutions to not just Bowie’s system issues but also other schools as well. Segura emphasized that the portable restrooms and water bottles were the fastest way to fix the problem with the pipes in a short period of time. 

“Other school communities are experiencing very similar issues. And so I know it feels as though it’s just Bowie sometimes, but I do see other school communities suffering from other deficient facilities.” Segura said. “As a community, and as we invest in our school system, just know that you aren’t alone.”