GFPS relocating some Lincoln students after wind blows off roof

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Updated 6:15 p.m. March 9

Great Falls Public Schools has a plan for Lincoln Elementary School students after the March 8 wind event caused significant damage to the school’s roof.

The wind caused significant damage to the building’s structure and it cannot be used at this time.

Lincoln Elementary roof damaged by wind, school will not be held there Monday or Tuesday

The school board voted unanimously to approve the emergency closure, under GFPS board policy and state law, during a special meeting. March 9.

Lincoln Elementary adding time to school day to make up for time lost during emergency closures [2020]

GFPS officials and Steve Yates, Lincoln principal, developed short- and long-term plans for Lincoln students on Sunday, which includes moving students to four different buildings.

“The goal is to keep classroom teachers and their students together for face-to-face instruction. Unfortunately, no other school building at GFPS has room for all of Lincoln’s classrooms together, but we absolutely appreciate the flexibility and welcome the following four schools are providing for Lincoln students and staff,” GFPS officials said.

Kindergarten through third grade and specialists will remain in Lincoln, Lance Boyd, GFPS assistant superintendent told The Electric.

Those classes are in the northern half of the building, which still has a roof.

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Boyd told The Electric that GFPS officials had met with Great Falls Fire Rescue within the last hour, as of 12:40 p.m. March 9, and determined that the fire alarm system is functioning throughout the entire building.

While the northern portion of the building, the district will conduct what is called fire watch checks in the southern portion of the building every hour.

GFPS board approved $1.29 million roof project for Lewis and Clark Elementary

Those two measures allow occupancy under fire code, Boyd said.

Boyd told the school board during their special March 9 meeting that they’re hoping to resume school at 10 a.m. March 11 at Lincoln.

Other students will relocate for now as follows:

  • grade 4 will relocate to Lewis and Clark Elementary
  • grades 5-6 will relocate to Paris Gibson Education Center

Boyd said they’re hoping to resume classes for grades 4-6 at their temporary locations at 10 a.m. March 12.

“We know and understand that this is not convenient and will not be easy on our students, families, or staff. In times of inconvenience, though, we appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work through this difficult temporary situation. We are working to maintain Lincoln’s identity and will continue with parent nights and all the other things that make Lincoln special. We will have classroom room numbers and schedules coming soon. Thank you again, for your thoughts and willingness to support Lincoln Elementary during this difficult time,” GFPS officials said in a notice to parents.

Boyd said that the district is offering bus transportation from Lincoln to Lewis and Clark for fourth graders They can ride the bus back to Lincoln if they go to HANDS or need transportation back to the building, he said.

PGEC is 2.5 blocks away from Lincoln and remains in walking distance for fifth and sixth graders, he said.

The March 10 parent information meetings will provide the plan and updates on the building.

Boyd said that the Lincoln roof will be an insurance claim and on March 9, crews were working to close the two gable ends that were exposed so that air wouldn’t get under and lift other portions of the roof. They’re also patching hundreds of leaks from the wind pulling off posts and joists.

Yates said in a note to Lincoln parents that when a portion of the roof was torn away, insulation was released in the surrounding area.

Yates said that Lincoln’s roof was last replaced in the mid to late 1990s and the insulation work was done by Klinefeller’s Insulation.

GFPS and GFFR confirmed with the company that the material is cellulose/fiberglass insulation and not asbestos, Yates wrote.

Superintendent Heather Hoyer told The Electric that initially they thought the roof had been replaced in 1998, but determined it was approved in 1995-1996, but staff was checking when the work was actually completed.

She said the new roof was placed over the existing roof at the time, which is mostly still in place, but has some holes because the new roof had been anchored to the old roof, so they’re worried about leaks and it has some cracks.

During the March 9 special GFPS board meeting, Hoyer said, “this is a first for many of us.”

She said that around noon March 8, Yates was contacted by a neighbor near the school that the roof had blown off Lincoln.

He immediately headed to the school and when he arrived, called Hoyer and Boyd.

District officials were in a “state of pretty severe distress,” Hoyer said seeing the condition of the school.

She said district staff had been working with busing, food service, technology, leadership, buildings and grounds, engineers, teachers, GFFR, NorthWestern Energy and more for the last 24-plus hours.

It looked like a snow storm around Lincoln, she said, with the insulation that had blown around the area as the roof was torn off.

Crews were out on March 9 sucking up the insulation with vacuums, and cleanup was ongoing in and around the Lincoln campus, she said.

GFFR issued partial occupancy for the northern section of the building and staff will continue monitoring the building, but “at this time we feel very safe being able to occupy it,” Hoyer told the school board.

She said that about 15 off-duty GFFR firefighters had helped teachers on March 9 with moving out of their classrooms to their new temporary locations.

Boyd, GFPS assistant superintendent, said “it’s been a busy 24 hours. Where were at right now is a lot better than 16 hours ago.”

The district can occupy the north wing and the gym, so they can resume kindergarten through third grade and all specialists in their normal locations, beginning March 11.

Since the roof was damaged on the south wing, three 4th grade classrooms are moving to Lewis and Clark; two 5th grade and three 6th grade classrooms are moving to Paris.

Boyd said that if the tree and flagpole hadn’t been in place, “the houses across the street were not going to be in good shape.”

A steel beam punctured the middle of the tree, where it was 30-inches thick, Boyd told the board.

“That tree did its job,” he said.

Getting occupancy for the youngest students was a big deal, he said, “that’s their home.”

Parent information meetings will be held at Paris on March 10, at 5 p.m. for grades 5-6 and 5:30 p.m. for fourth grade.

Boyd said that there’s water damage within the building where the roof was torn off.

He said GFPS buildings and grounds staff was working on identifying the amount of damage, and they’ll put dehumidifiers in the building and test the air. The district is working with its staff and its insurance provider to assess the structural damage.

Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ business operations manager, said that he’s been in touch with the Montana Office of Instruction and their insurance provider about the damage. He said a claims adjuster should be on site on March 10 to view the damage.

Kim Skornogoski, board member, said the top thing she was hearing from parents was whether sixth graders would be able to get back in the building for their traditions.

“We will work to make sure all those traditions occur,” Boyd said.

Bill Bronson, board member, asked how the district was explaining the closure to students.

Boyd said teachers are working with their building principal to develop scripts, but since the school is within four blocks of their student demographic, “many kids know and understand exactly what happened because they see it with their own eyes.”

He said they’re working on maintaining a sense of school community when students separated from their environment.

It’s an experienced teacher team and while disruptive, the experience will be memorable, he said.

“At the end of the day, school’s about making memories, and you made a very big memory,” Boyd said.

Paige Henning, Turoski’s new married name, said a friend of hers had a daughter at Lincoln for the first time this year after transferring from private school. The friend has posted on social media how impressed she was with how the district was handling the incident, Henning said, and thanked administrators for giving parents that security.

Gordon Johnson, board chair, said that he was in the district offices at 8 a.m. March 9 with a room full of Lincoln teachers and staff.

“They were in a can do mood,” Johnson said. “It was just inspiring to be in a room full of so many can do people who had the right attitude to address this. I’m very proud of all those people. We have our work remaining. We’re gonna do it effectively and we’re gonna do it well and with a smile on our face.”