Springvale school Springvale school , or Springvale Elementary School is a school in northern Springvale . The Potomac is visible from the school . The closest settlement is Megaton . Background . In the 21st century Springvale Elementary saw to the education of the children of Virginia ' s rural communities . When not attending classes the students played baseball in the school playground . The school was overseen by a local school board which was a strong supporter of community - based programs promoting family reading nights . It was severely damaged during the Great War with the three upper floors completely destroyed and the side of the building facing the Potomac River torn open , exposing staff and students sheltering inside . The school sat abandoned for two centuries . In 2277 an opportunistic band of raiders established a base in the school building which they used as a base of operations to raid the surrounding areas . The raiders marked the building with graffiti and built makeshift cages to house their victims . From this base the raiders attacked trade caravans , abducted wastelanders and even attempted to raid nearby Megaton . The raid on the settlement failed , resulting in the death of the raider Boppo and a failure to steal any loot . The surviving raiders ran for their lives fleeing from Lucas Simms and the sniper Stockholm . In an effort to make up for this loss the raiders targeted the nearby Vault 101 , beginning an ambitious engineering project to gain access to the vault . The engineering project envisioned by the raiders was an underground tunnel into Vault 101 . Captured wastelanders , addressed by the gang as ' scabs ' , were pressed into service as diggers . A while after the project had been started , the raiders thought it would be a good idea to use explosives under the school to quicken the pace of their digging ; the blasts caused some minor damage to the school . Later after that , during the construction , they encountered unexpected resistance from a hive of hostile giant ant s who killed seven of the tunnelers . Faced with a threat that could quickly turn catastrophic , the raiders decided to abandon the project completely , lock the door to the tunnel entrance and place sentries in the school ' s basement . The other raiders returned to the two other floors . Some raiders took up positions in the exposed interior of the school , scanning for intruders . This is the situation that the Lone Wanderer encounters upon entering the occupied school . Layout . The school faces west . A parking lot and children ' s playground are in front of the school , while a baseball field is behind the school . A large sign southwest of the school identifies the building . When built , the school was a five - story structure with a basement . Top floor . This is the uppermost floor of the school accessible . The floor can be entered from the outside by a door in a northern wall reached by a staircase , and stairways from the ground floor within the school . This floor has a library with a storage room , a corridor converted by the raider leader into their sleeping quarters , and a balcony overlooking the foyer . The door to the raider leader ' s quarters from the library is locked , and can only be opened by either lockpicking the door or using the Springvale library key which can be obtained by killing the raider leader ' s second in command . Ground floor . This is the ground floor of the school . This floor is entered from the outside by the main entrance , and by stairways from the upper floor and the basement . These were the rooms on this floor : a foyer , a kitchen , two classrooms , a gentlemen ' s restroom , a ladies restroom , and a storage room . In the exposed interior of the school , there is a classroom and a break room . Lower Level . This is the basement of the school . This floor is entered from the outside by a door in the exposed interior of the school , and stairways from the ground floor . There are two rooms , one of them a store room , within the covered interior of the school . In the exposed interior of the school , there is a locker room and a restroom . Mining tunnel . The mining tunnel was the construction project initiated by the raiders in order to get into the vault . It begins in the larger of the two intact rooms of the basement . This room is protected by a very hard lock door . 100 lockpicking skill , or obtaining the basement key by killing the raider leader , can open the door . This tunnel is guarded by giant ants . In the tunnel , there is a fork . The path to the left leads to a chamber populated by ants , and the path to the right leads to a dead end . Upon entering the chamber , two groups of three worker ants will arrive from separate directions . The tunnel ends abruptly south of the school under the ruins of Springvale , however , the compass reading is misleading due to a computer glitch ( see Spatial Orientation issues ) . Inhabitants . The school is inhabited by at least 10 raiders and their leader . The leader has a raider guard dog . In a chamber under the school , there is a hive of giant ants . Two of their victims , both wastelanders , lie where they fell . Enclave outpost . Walk behind the school and head in a northeast direction . You will come across a derelict building on the water . If you have completed The Waters of Life , there will be an Enclave base set up with at least two soldiers and an officer . Similar to the Outpost near the Nuka - Cola plant , the Enclave soldiers here appear to be low ranking trainees or recruits , as they lack helmets , are equipped only with laser pistols , and possess extremely poor condition equipment . They can be found doing push - ups under the supervision of the Officer . The Enclave seems to have been doing research at this location as their terminal reports mainly on mirelurks and radroaches . Mirelurks and a mirelurk king can be found in the lake nearby and may attack the player . The building in the center has a crater which seems to glow and gives off up to 3 rads per second . If " Broken Steel " is installed , after Take it Back ! is completed , the Enclave officer here can be found executing his / her own men . Both the officer and the Enclave soldiers ( if they are somehow saved by the player ) remain hostile to the player . Appearances . The Springvale school appears only in " Fallout 3 " .