On this Monday after Thanksgiving, Principal Erin Bowser was giving a tour instead of shepherding hundreds of students through a day of classes at Rose Hill Middle School.
"A crew is coming to check out the extent of the damage," Bowser said.
Soon she was surrounded by workers trying to repair it.
"That sheet from here down to that light,” one worker shouted to the others.
A pipe burst inside the school's heating system overnight, as the janitor showed.
"As soon as I opened (the door), water came all over," he said. "The problem was inside here."
And that water flowed down three floors into the school's gymnasium, locker room and athletic offices. It left the school with no usable water and no heat. One classroom was a frosty 55 degrees.
"And with that information we knew we couldn't have 850 kids coming our way today, said principal Bowser.
But the decision not to have school wasn't made until after 6:30 Monday morning.
Eighth grader Rowan Villanueva and her family never got the message.
"Our internet carrier is currently down and it's connected to our home phone," said Villanueva. "So we're not getting any notices from the school at all.
"Is this good news?" she was asked.
"Yeah," she replied, with a big smile.
If indeed the classrooms warm up enough so that students can spend a full day in them Tuesday, they may get a bit more good news.
Because this was an emergency closure, they may not have to make it up at the end of the school year.
"Yesss! Yesss!" exclaimed Villanueva. "That is awesome."
Rose Hill is a relatively new school. It opened just 15 months ago.
The damage to the school is likely to run into the thousands of dollars.