Sacajawea fire cost $1.3 million

Damage from the Sept. 8 fire that destroyed the Sacajawea Middle School library, originally estimated at $300,000, has risen to $1.3 million.

That’s 13 times as much restitution as a former Sacajawea student was ordered to pay when he pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting the fire.

Harrison M. Seaborn, who turns 16 next month, is to pay $100,000 in restitution. Co-defendants Quinten M. Glenn, 16, and Cody L. Baker, 15, will have to help pay if they also are convicted.

Juvenile Court Commissioner James Triplet told Seaborn the debt and other aspects of the crime are likely to affect him for the rest of his life.

Sacajawea students and staff also have been burdened by the fire but are coping well, according to school officials.

Perhaps the biggest problem was lack of heat until the middle of last week.

“We have spent from the fourth day of school until Monday last week in a huge cleanup effort with the air system,” said Mark Anderson, associate superintendent for the Spokane School District. “We had to hire two fire restoration specialty contractors.”

The school’s ventilation system was operating during the fire, sucking smoke and soot into the air-circulation tunnels under the school.

The heat couldn’t be turned on in most parts of the building until the tunnels were cleaned and certified free of health-threatening debris.

Students and staff “were good sports about it,” Anderson said. “They dressed warmly.”

Rob Reavis, Sacajawea’s assistant principal, said heat was a welcome treat when it was restored on the morning after Halloween.

Until then, the only central heat was in the cafeteria, gymnasium and hallways. But each classroom had one or two portable heaters.

“Those did a decent enough job that it wasn’t freezing,” Reavis said.

Nevertheless, students were allowed to wear their heavy coats in class.

Three of four classrooms in the library wing of the building remain usable, but students have to go outside to get to them because the hallway had to be sealed off at its mouth.

“The kids have been just stellar about how they have handled that change,” Reavis said. “It actually has improved the flow of traffic in our hallway.”

Two staff members in particular have been challenged by the fire: librarian Dinah Coble and eighth-grade social studies teacher Adam Hencz, whose classroom suffered heavy smoke damage.

In addition to providing library services to a handful of kids at a time in a converted conference room, Coble is coordinating the efforts of numerous volunteers while ordering a new collection and replacing other lost materials and equipment.

Hencz now uses a cart to roll his teaching materials from the choir room in the morning to a part-time teacher’s classroom in the afternoon.

Computers also are provided “a la carte” these days. Carts carrying 30 laptop computers with wireless Internet service go from classroom to classroom.

“We call them COWs – computers on wheels,” Anderson said.

The system is widely used in most Spokane schools, and Sacajawea already had three COWs and one on order when the fire occurred. Two of them were destroyed along with 31 computer research stations in the library, but school officials brought in four more COWs to offset the loss.

Anderson said two portable buildings are on order to replace the library and Hencz’s classroom for the remainder of the school year. They’re expected to be ready for use early in December.

Also, Anderson said, the school district has hired an architect to design the reconstruction. Bids are to be taken in January, and school officials hope to have construction under way in February or March.

The goal is to have the new quarters ready for occupation in July, Anderson said.

Reavis said the arson has caused disappointment more than resentment among Sacajawea students and staff members. It also has resulted in heart-warming support from the community, he said.

“We’ve had a huge response from our community in terms of volunteers coming to help with the library,” Reavis said. “We’ve had truckloads of books brought to the school and donated.”

Manito Presbyterian Church provided a couple of rooms in its basements, where Coble and volunteers sorted the books.

There also have been some fundraisers such as the penny drive that students at Westgate Christian School, 7111 N. Nine Mile Road, conducted to help rebuild the Sacajawea library. The drive netted about 23,000 pounds of pennies, or about $230.

“It really shows the resiliency and the support our community has for our schools,” Reavis said.