Damage may bring about new school

School officials in Grant County are both blessed and cursed as they search for classrooms for the Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School students displaced by vandalism that caused extensive flood damage.

While the building suffered severe damage, it is big enough to shift students to other parts of the school. It will open this morning after students from the communities of Almira, Coulee City and Hartline stayed home on Monday and Tuesday, Superintendent Edward Fisk said.

“The science room was the most heavily damaged. That portion of the school will be closed and sealed and probably be left that way,” Fisk said. “I don’t think we will ever reopen it. But, we can manage without it.”

Fisk said he believes the structure, which is in Hartline, was built in 1928 and is bigger than needed to house its 95 students. Before the burglary, which occurred sometime between Nov. 23 and Saturday, the local school board had been discussing building a new high school.

“We have been seriously talking about it because of the age of the building and the age of the boiler,” Fisk said. The vandalism damage “certainly is going to play into it. Remodeling it would cost us more than rebuilding a new school that is more in line with the number of students we have.”

Grant County Sheriff Frank DeTrolio said investigators have a couple possible leads but no suspects have been arrested in the vandalism.

“I can understand a burglary,” DeTrolio said. “But I can’t understand the act of vandalism afterwards.”

A quick check by school officials found more than $13,000 worth of stolen computers and digital cameras. The burglars then turned on three water spigots on the second floor that sent water rushing through the ceiling, into walls and into an old gym that was used only for wrestling practice.

Early estimates placed the damage at about $300,000.

“It’s the worst (vandalism) I can recall,” said DeTrolio, who has lived in Grant County since 1959. “We always have the broken windows and that kind of stuff. They definitely turned the water on intentionally. But I’m sure they never considered the long-lasting damage that water will cause the building.”

Crews hired by the school district’s insurance company have already started pulling out ceilings, walls and floors to avoid major mold problems, Fisk said.

“It’s made a lot of work for a lot of people,” he said.

Even though the students got two extra days of vacation, many were upset, Fisk said.

“Although it’s an older building, it’s still their school,” he said. “They don’t feel good about people doing things like this.”