SUMMIT TWP — Students returned to Summit Township Elementary School today after classes were canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday while district officials prepared the building to operate without running water for drinking or hand washing.

Water was shut off to the sinks and water fountains in the school Thursday and the district announced Friday that tests of the school’s water in August had shown dangerous concentrations of lead.

According to updates posted to the district’s website, the district on Wednesday obtained and installed portable hand washing sinks throughout the school that will be filled with outside water.

Nutrition, Inc., the district’s food services contractor, met with an official from the state Department of Agriculture to outline procedures to use municipal water, not from the school’s well, for cleaning and sanitizing equipment, including tables and countertops. Food service staff will wash their hands with bottled water using a container with a continuous flow faucet and a temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The food is not prepared in the building and bottled water for drinking was to be given out to students for free.

The well water will only remain in use in the toilets and urinals in the building.