Mayfield gym floor mystery solved

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The mystery of the buckling gymnasium floor at Mayfield Elementary School has been solved.

Cleveland City Schools officials were puzzled when the floor broke into ridges several inches high just as school opened. The floor was deemed too dangerous for children to use.

A review of surveillance video by Principal Dee Dee Finison showed night crew employees of a contract cleaning company poured water directly onto the wooden floor to clean it.

The company, Service Solutions, has agreed to tear out the floor at the three-year-old school and build a new one.

“We will be fully responsible for all monetary expenses incurred to fix, repair and/or replace the gym floor,” Service Solutions Senior Regional Manager Jerry Last wrote in a letter to City Schools Director Rick Denning.

School board members said Thursday that could amount to over $70,000.

“You don’t mix water and wood unless you are building a boat,” Denning said. “I don’t know what in the world somebody was thinking.”

But in fairness, several elementary schools have a concrete floor with a vinyl overlay and are not wooden, said Chuck Rockholt, supervisor of public information for the schools.

“Those floors are cleaned exactly that way,” Rockholt said.

Denning and others praised Service Solutions for promptly taking the responsibility and going to work on the floor.

“I’m extremely pleased with them,” Denning said.

All the company requested was a copy of the video for their insurance carrier, he said.

The big ripples in the floor surprised school officials because they happened so quickly and the cause was unknown. A search for outside water leaks was unsuccessful. The floor itself was constructed to be impervious to water, school officials said.

“Everybody was scratching their head,” said School board member Dawn Robinson.