In early January 2024, low temperatures caused a pipe to burst at Skyridge Middle School (SMS), spilling roughly 3,200 gallons of water into 22 classrooms and the school library.

An estimated 260 books were lost to water damage, disappointing many students and leaving them without materials they normally relied on. Current CHS freshmen and former SMS student Jeriah Toyco was very troubled by the loss, and shared his reaction to hearing the news.

“When I found out the damages to the library, it was unfortunate to know that pieces of Skyridge’s history in literature were gone, leaving students without materials to read, as well as [the setback] for ELA classes because of damaged books,” Toyco said.

Despite the extensive damage, SMS librarians dedicated significant effort to salvaging the remaining books. Current SMS librarian Sarah Logan took over in the clean-up efforts, overseeing the process of sorting damaged books and determining what could be saved.

“There’s not much that you can do to save wet books,” Logan said.  “If they were not soaking wet, it’s possible to try drying them out and flattening the pages sometimes, but you really don’t know if it will work until you try it and the book has to be completely dry before you do it.”

Once the books were sorted and assessed, the real repairs could begin, starting with the slow process of drying and reshaping pages.

“To dry books, the standard procedure is to stand them up as open as possible on a table, and if possible to point a fan at them,” Logan said. “Once the book is completely dry, we have a special ‘book vice’ that we use to try to flatten pages and undo the crinkly water pages.”

While the full library has not been restored and some books are yet to be replaced, the aftermath of the disaster has been marked by steady progress toward rebuilding the collection. SMS received a $2,000 grant from OnPoint Community Credit Union’s 2025 Excellence in Education Community Builder Award, which allowed the library to purchase 74 new books. To keep track of which books needed replacement, librarians created a prioritized list to guide the first round of purchases.

“To help me refine which books to prioritize, I kept track of the topics students requested and to the assignments teachers were giving that required or suggested library resource use,” Logan said.  “When purchasing books, if it was primarily for classroom curriculum support, I tried to buy eBooks if it was financially reasonable.  If a book was for student interest, a paper copy was purchased.”

The library is slowly being returned to its former state, and in some ways, it is beginning to surpass it. For CHS freshmen and former student Logan Archer, he sees the process of restoring the SMS library as a testament to its resilience..

“For many students, seeing the library come back to life has been a meaningful part of the recovery,” Archer said.