May 18—Students at Capital High School will spend the last four days of the school year learning remotely after a waterline break on campus Wednesday afternoon necessitated the temporary closure of the school.

Students and staff came to Capital High on a shortened schedule Thursday, during which teachers explained to their students how remote learning — including the administration of final exams — will work until the last day of school May 24, said Cody Dynarski, a spokesman for Santa Fe Public Schools.

The school's graduation ceremony, scheduled Thursday on Capital High's football field, will proceed as planned.

Though crews have started working to remedy the deluge at Capital High, Dynarski said the extent of the damage to the school as well as the timeline for fixing the problem are unknown.

The waterline break marks the second this semester at a Santa Fe school. Ortiz Middle School was closed for weeks in February — during which students learned remotely — following the rupture of a main waterline at that campus, which resulted in muddy standing water damaging about 40% of the school.

Whether the waterline breaks between Ortiz Middle School and Capital High are related remains unknown. The schools are near each other, off Jaguar Drive.

"We won't know until we go in and look at it and see if there's any correlation to the one at Ortiz," Dynarski said.