Dayton water outage: More than half of local schools close for Thursday

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — >> Stay informed: School, business closings and delays

Nine of the 16 public school districts in Montgomery County are closed today after a widespread issue with the Dayton and Montgomery County water system led to outages and boil advisories in many areas.

Which schools closed 

Dayton, Centerville, Kettering, Miamisburg, Northmont, Trotwood, West Carrollton, Jefferson Twp. and Northridge Schools are closed today. Most local charter schools also are closed, as they are located in Dayton, Trotwood and Jefferson Twp. and tied to them for busing.

Among Catholic/Christian schools, Alter, Chaminade-Julienne, Dayton Christian, Spring Valley Academy and many Catholic elementary schools are closed, while Carroll High School is on a two-hour delay. The Miami Valley Career Tech Center in Clayton and the Dayton Regional STEM School in Kettering are also closed.

RELATED: Boil advisory issued: Montgomery County residents still asked to conserve water

Bring bottled water 

Some schools remained open despite having some water issues. Mad River and Brookville schools posted on their social media accounts that students should bring bottled water today.

“The boil advisory will not have a negative impact on our lunch service or use of restroom facilities,” Mad River officials said. “All water fountains will be off limits to students both Thursday and Friday.”

Brookville school officials said their cafeterias will adhere to the boil advisory today, adding that “Local authorities have assured that all sources of water are strong.”

RELATED: Boil advisory not for all of Montgomery County

Some stay open 

Some of the Montgomery County school districts that remained open did so because their communities have their own water systems. Those include Huber Heights, Oakwood and the Valley View schools in Germantown and Farmersville.

The cities of Miamisburg and West Carrollton also have water systems separate from Montgomery County, but those school districts are closed, as school boundaries do not exactly mirror the cities, and therefore the water systems. Both of those school districts include parts of Miami Twp. that use county water, and Miamisburg has school buildings there. West Carrollton has a school and many residents in Moraine, which uses county water.

The Vandalia-Butler school district is split between county and non-county water systems, and only Smith Middle School, which is on county water, is closed Thursday.

Timing of decisions

Some schools on the north side of Dayton that were hit harder by the water issue announced their closures Wednesday night, while others waited until 5 a.m. Thursday.

But the situation was fluid. New Lebanon schools posted around 6 a.m. that students should bring bottled water, then changed it minutes later, saying they had been informed that their area was not under a boil advisory.