The City of Manassas is frantically trying to make arrangements to house its 5th and 6th graders for the rest of the year. The roof on the 4 year old school has been declared compromised and has been deemed unsafe even for teachers to re-enter the building to get supplies and personal belongings.
School superintendent Gail Pope is trying to open school in 9 days with no supplies, no phones, and at this point, no classrooms. So far, plans are to use old Marstellar that was bought from Prince William County by Manassas Baptist Church. The City is also looking at renting space from Manassas Assemblies of God Church that has classroom space. Additionally, there is some limited space at Round and Weems, according to Pope.
Who will bear the cost of this major roof repair that has structurally harmed part of the building? This is a 4 year old school. How could this have happened? Was it not built to code? Are other schools compromised because of flat roofs? How will this temporary situation affect SOL scores of the 5th and 6th graders? They will have missed more school than their counterparts not living in the City. Will the state make them make up the time? If yes, those poor kids will be in school until the 4th of July.
Further information: Manassas News & Messenger
Spoke to my Mayfield friend:
5th grade will be at the Assemblies of God church and 6th grade will be at old Marstellar. So grade levels will remain together.
Insurance will kick in to cover costs.
The trusses bowed in 2 places in the center of the roof between the 5th and 6th grade wings, so both wings have been compromised structurally. How the roof should be repaired has not yet been determined.
Supplies will be ordered for the teachers and possible supply donations from companies are being explored.
Report cards have been completed and the city can access them via the school network and print them out.
Thanks, DB. I love seeing a plan come together!
Thanks for the update, DB. Wow. This just should not have happened. Will the builder be held accountable? Will the students still have to take SOLS? When will they return to school?
Have county schools even been inspected yet? It seems like a hard overnight rain compromises some of those roofs, especially on the older schools.
I’m not sure if there have been or are talks about the builder’s liability in this. The builder as you may know is an out of state/non-local company. I guess the engineers need to thoroughly examine the trusses to determine if it was shoddy construction vs. shoddy design vs. shoddy materials. I’m sure lawyers and the insurance company will be looking into all areas but IMO this could take a year or so to figure out.
Students will have to take SOLS. However, it is only 5th grade that has the full SOL testing schedule (all subjects). During 6th grade the SOLS are reading, math and (I think) science. Most SOLS except for writing are scheduled for the end of May, beginning of June. It is the writing SOL which is scheduled the first week of March that is the issue. I do not know if the city has requested the state to allow them more time. That is a Dr. Pope or Dr. Meyer question.
As for the issue of schools being inspected…the roof issue was discovered by the school maintenance workers on a walk thru of all of the school buildings which is what they are required to do after storms. I’m sure the county has crews who inspect their buildings as well.
As for instruction, my friend said they “ended in a good place”. Instructional units had been completed, all mid year testing was completed, grades were entered into the database, and plans for the next units had been done. She plans on moving to the next unit as soon as her students return to her. Plans are ready and accessible online. It is only the loss of her classroom reading library, and reading sets that she laments. However, Metz teachers and others have books to lend. My friend also said that the morale is great and the teachers are readily working together as they embark on this adventure.
5th grade takes writing, science, math & reading SOLs
6th grade takes math, reading & history SOLs
Thanks for posting the update about it – it is an interesting story and it is ashame what happened with the roof, etc. I was wondering what would happen with the children attending that school, too.
As to who will pay the cost eventually – obviously the City of Manassas taxpayers. Well, I guess maybe some insurance company will pay some of the cost for repairing the roof, maybe. Still, I think the cost to the City is not going to be zero – which means it will affect the budget, or the tax rate – as either there will have to be cost cuts (and we all know that usually won’t work in this bad economy) or there will have to be higher tax rate to make up for the cost of whatever needs to be done to repair the roof. It may not be a big impact on taxes in the grand scheme of things, but as I say I bet the cost to City of Manassas is not $0! What it is, I have no idea.
Again, it is an interesting (but tragic sort of) story to follow. Who knows the exact affect on the students in terms of tests they were supposed to take, etc. etc. etc.
SOL tests aren’t until May, so there is plenty of time to get the instruction in at the new locations.
Moon, the Mayfield School family just sent out a needs list. I’ll mail it to you if you want to post it.
The volunteers/supply list is on the Mayfield Web site:
http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=67