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The Board of Education shared information on developments at Fernway Elementary School since the building was damaged by fire on July 10, 2018. This summary provides some highlights of the meeting. We encourage community members to attend the Fernway Community Meeting at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 19 at the Lomond Elementary School gym.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Stephen M. Wilkins welcomed members of the Shaker Heights Fire Department and thanked them for their "good and great work." The District also presented SHFD Chief Patrick Sweeney with a gift. Shaker Heights Mayor David Weiss was also in attendance and shared that it was heartwarming to watch the entire community come together to support Fernway.
Interim Superintendent's Update
Dr. Wilkins discussed the District's guiding principles throughout this process:
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We want to do everything we can to keep Fernway whole.
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We understand the urgency. We're working 24/7 to ensure we're ready and prepared for all of our schools to open successfully.
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We are considering three categories with regards to temporary space:
Empty buildings
Modular classrooms
Temporary assignments of classroom to other buildings in Shaker
We can't guess at next steps yet, in terms of the building itself. We must follow a process of review and due diligence. We must:
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Stabilize the building
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Complete structural assessment before we can make plans to restore the building and this will take time
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Focus on getting Fernway up and running and getting Mr. Hayward and staff back to teaching and focused on student learning
Dr. Wilkins also shared this gratitude to the Fernway neighborhood and to the broader Shaker community. He's received calls from across the country from former students and staff inquiring about the building.
The goal is to make a decision on a temporary location by August 1.
Report from Bill Mangelluzzi, Disaster Recovery Contractor
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Tried to get out as much salvageable furniture as possible. One of the goals is to save as much furniture as possible. Gym and library held up really well because they are under a different roof system. A lot of the books in there are salvageable.
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Parking lots staging area:
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Red container has 600 student chairs, most were salvageable.
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Green container is halfway full of student desks. There was a lot of furniture in the hallways. We got those out first. Majority of those items were salvageable.
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Trailer is for total loss items. District can't dispose of those items until they are cataloged and assigned a value.
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