By Landon Rogers-Neubarth

   During COVID-19, St. Johns county turned off the water fountains in the school in compliance to the CDC’s health regulations for physical distancing. In order to allow students to get water on campus without the purchase of a non-reusable bottle, the school implemented water bottle fillers at all locations of water fountains. Two years later, and despite the remaining CDC regulations being lifted, the water fountains have remained nonoperational. Ponte Vedra High School maintenance coordinator, Nick Athanaseas said this has been a result of district policy; however, this will be changed over the 2022-2023 winter break. On Jan. 5, 2023, the district preventive maintenance team will fix the valves that had been installed incorrectly during the initial decommission. They were supposed to install a shut off valve with a switch to turn the water fountains back on, but when the plumper put the valves in they did not have a switch. The team will be installing new valves with the switch to allow students to use the water fountains once again when students return after break.