An exterior sprinkler line ruptured outside La Cumbre Junior High School last week, causing minor flood damage to the school’s nearly-completed theater project. 

The new theater, which was set to open on the first day of school, will now be delayed for at least a few weeks while carpeting and portions of the theater’s wood flooring are replaced.

The Aug. 11 rupture occurred at 6 a.m. and ran for an hour before school officials could arrive to shut it off. Two ventilation ducts under the theater will also need to be replaced.

Carl Mayrose, project manager for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, said the ducts actually helped prevent the damage from being more extensive than it could have been.

“Insulation inside the ducts actually soaked up water while the floor ducts themselves acted as a drain that kept water from spreading farther into the theater,” Mayrose told Noozhawk.

The theater will still be used for school assemblies and other non-public functions until repairs are complete, since the flooding wasn’t so bad to prevent it being used. 

This is one of the district’s projects funded by Measure Q general obligation bond money. 

— Noozhawk intern Shaun Kahmann can be reached at skahmann@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.