This WA school district has removed all the students during a careful remediation of water-damaged classrooms. Removing the students and conducting this as a remediation is the right thing to do, from our perspective! (SMH)
CASHMERE — The scene Thursday seemed almost normal at Vale Elementary, a school shut down this week while restoration crews cleaned up water damage.
ENLARGE
Tracy Clinton, left, and Saul Renderfrance of France & Co. cover the contents of Darla Kenoyer’s kindergarten classroom at Vale Elementary School before working to remove part of a wall Thursday afternoon. Vale will reopen Monday after the water damage is repaired. (World photo/Kathryn Stevens)
The parking lot was full as staff worked around the clean-up. The bell chimed on time.
Inside, there was no construction or mold smells, soggy carpets or water stains.
It was all normal, except all 530 children were absent. Classrooms were sealed by heavy plastic taped inside door frames. Behind the barriers, workers stripped damp walls down to the studs.
Earlier this month, water from ice dams seeped into the walls, even in areas recently reroofed, said Superintendent Glenn Johnson. Warm winds suddenly melted the snow, sending runoff through the back doors and 50 feet down the main hallway.
"None of it was severe but there were so many areas impacted by the ice damming that we were in close to 50 percent of the classrooms to some degree," said Paul Render, vice president of contractor France & Co.
An "incidental" amount of mold was found, although ongoing air particle tests indicate no health risks, said Tamara Knudson, a Spokane-based environmental scientist.
"We had recommendations we were fine to go to school, but we made the choice to expedite this remediation process," Johnson said. The school district decided to close the school to allow crews full access to speed the work up and prevent any more moisture damage, he said.
Barred from classrooms this week, teachers set up shop elsewhere in the building. While some worked alone grading assignments or developing lesson plans, others met in groups.
A team of second-grade teachers claimed a round table in the library and plugged in laptops from home.
"It’s a little frustrating. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to get done, but I can’t get into my room," said teacher Joan Campbell. Like several teachers Thursday, her work computer, grade book and materials were inaccessible.
The team worked anyway. They analyzed test results, developing grade-level projects and studied new state standards — work they’d typically have to squeeze in between classes or on a professional development day.
Meanwhile, a bunch of caterpillars were growing close to cocoon stage.
"My students were supposed to be watching their life cycle this week, but they’re life-cycling without them," said second-grade teacher Jennifer Donald.
Down the hall, kindergarten teacher Laura Martínez was putting her classroom back together. While crews finished replacing the exterior wall last week, she taught class in "the pod," the central space in a cul-de-sac of classrooms.
"You don’t realize what you have in the classroom until you can’t get to it," Martínez said. She pointed to a line of numbers she recently restapled around the room. Every day the kids count how many days of schools have passed.
"They know the routine. They say, ‘Ms. Martínez you forgot to do this,’ " about the daily number line. She told them, " ‘Well honey, I don’t have it,’ so I pull some magic tricks out of my bag and get creative on how to teach kindergartners without props."
With help from other staff, she began unpacking her classroom Monday. By Thursday, she wasn’t finished. For other teachers, classrooms will be available by Sunday.
"You see why we wanted to speed up the work," Bowers said about reconstruction. "We were going to do this two classrooms at a time while teaching kids for several weeks. We hope to reoccupy our classrooms by Monday."
Rachel Schleif: 664-7139
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