A faulty natural gas valve at Knoch High School delayed the start of the day on Wednesday for students and staff at the high school and adjacent middle school.

Dave Foley, South Butler County School District superintendent, said he called the fire department at 6:45 a.m. after the odor of natural gas became noticeable in the high school.

Foley sent out a group message to parents of students in grades 6 through 12 at about 7 a.m. and contacted W.L. Roenigk, the district's transportation company, to have drivers divert students to the unaffected elementary buildings across Knoch Road.

He said high school students were sent to the primary school gym and middle school students to the intermediate elementary school gym.

Students who drive to school parked at the high school and walked across the street to wait with other students.

District maintenance workers were unable to detect the location of the gas leak with meters before Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Department arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

“The challenge was that was the line from the boiler to the (science) classroom. (We thought) there must be a leak in that pipe,” Foley said.

Fire Chief Chris Dean said the problem turned out to be a faulty valve in a maintenance room.

“The problem was taken care of right away and the issue has been resolved,” Dean said.

Foley said the Bunsen burners will not be heating up beakers until the problem is fixed.

“As a precaution, we're not turning those gas lines back on in those classrooms,” Foley said.

He said Dean gave the go-ahead to allow students to return to class just before second period, about 8:30 a.m.

Foley said he initially considered a delay to the start of the school day, but decided against it because many students were already in the elementary gyms.

“It's one of these things that you plan for a situation like this and it went really well,” Foley said. “The students were responsible and respectful.”

He said student and staff safety is the top priority in any situation in the district.

“We're always concerned about safety and we need to lean on our fire department and gas company to help make sure we found the source (of the leak) because safety is the most important thing,” Foley said.

Classes continued normally after students returned to their buildings.

“We're back on schedule and everything is well,” Foley said at 9:30 a.m.