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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
These standard 6 students had a normal day of classes today. But after midday,

It was a free fun day for all the other students - these kids playing and entertaining themselves on the chalk board.

It was a slow day for the teachers as well, apart from clearing up their classrooms, grading assignments and writing lesson plans, they too just hung out on the compound.

It is far from ideal for Sacred Heart Primary School but it is a reality they have to face since the public health department shut the school down until their severe sewerage problem is properly addressed.

Principal Philippa Hulett told us she has been dealing with this problem for years but they have been getting by with a short term management plan.

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"What we have done to remedy the problem is that we have a maintenance worker who comes in and then he would then clean the pipelines that takes the water to the sea, so he would normally clean out the pipelines and that would allow us to flush and then the water would go through."

Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"That is done every year?"

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"That is done every year, so many times for the year."

But the problem only worsened and clearing the pipes was simply not enough so the school secured funds earlier this month to get a new septic tank.

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"Ultimately it seemed like the septic system was the main idea."

Courtney Weatherburne
"The main problem, the source of the problem."

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"Yes to get us this new septic system."

"I thought that just connecting pipes to a septic system and soakaway everything would just work fine that is what I initially thought and when the project started and we called off classes for those four days. We installed the septic tanks it has been working very well so when the toilet flush automatically it goes into the tanks and everything has been working well."

Well that relief was short lived - turns out, that was only part of the problem.

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"I was at a meeting Thursday, then I got a call that the bathrooms are not flushing, that was Thursday evening, so when I came to school Friday morning, the entire area of was flooded."

"But then when this problem started Thursday that when we realized that the tank that is connected to the sewage tank that was backing up water to the septic tank which flooded the two tanks an once we flushed nothing is going down because water is flooding."

"We did not know that at the bottom of that holding tank there are three different holes within that and water is sprouting, so we bail so the water comes up."

The teachers, students and parents are all frustrated and desperate for a solution, even more so the janitor who has to clean up the filth.

Courtney Weatherburne
"How many times for the day you would have to clean the bathrooms?"

Rozlyn Lindsey, Janitor
"I cleaned the bathrooms 3-4 times day to keep it fresh and that takes a lot of cleaning equipment."

Courtney Weatherburne
"A lot of time as well too. You have to be there constantly in all that dirty water."

Rozlyn Lindsey, Janitor
"Yes it does."

Courtney Weatherburne
"I'm sure it's very frustrating for you to have to deal with that."

Rozlyn Lindsey, Janitor
"It is, because I have to flush manually at times. I would have to go and deal with people feces, get a bucket of water and flush in there. Sometimes it doesn't go down, it just comes back up. So it's really frustrating."

So for now classes have been called off and the bathrooms remain closed until the experts come in to assess the situation.

Philippa Hulett, Principal
"Getting an engineer involved I believe is the ultimate answer, because this person would be able to really diagnosed the problem and tell us the way forward."

Until then, it is a matter of patience, understanding and team work to get the kids back to school.

Fortunately for those standard six students who are attending class, there is a single bathroom upstairs that is not connected to the faulty sewerage system, so the kids and teachers just have to take turns using the bathroom because as you saw in the story, the main bathrooms are closed. The principal is calling on parents, the community and the Ministry of Education to assist in any way they can. If you would like to assist you can call principal Hulett at 637-0616 or the school's management office at 522-2025. We will keep following this story.