High winds tore the roof off Lincoln Elementary School in Great Falls, prompting the Great Falls Public Schools Board of Trustees to hold a special meeting and declare an emergency closure for the school.
"By Montana code, by statute, we are required to provide educational services to students for a certain number of minutes every year. And by being able to declare the state of emergency that we have, it allows us to have a slight variance to that to address the emergency. So we get pieces in place and provide education again to students," GFPS Superintendent Heather Hoyer said.
GFPS Executive Director Lance Boyd said the extent of the damage was stunning.
"We were notified. I was there shortly after it. And to say shock is an understatement. In Great Falls, you expect the wind to blow. You don't expect roofs of schools to get ripped off," Boyd said.
Boyd said a large center section of the roof was torn off.
"That caused significant damage, not only to the roof section that had an old roof on top of it. But because of the amount of material used to keep that roof down to the old roof, there are a lot of holes that had to be patched today," Boyd said.
Skilled trades workers from the community made a team effort in making repairs, according to Boyd.
"We were able to get a majority of the building, from the top, resealed, and all those holes filled. We are able to get the two remaining portions of the roof, be able to be sealed up so that A the remaining insulation doesn't blow out. But B, as we get these wind events, they don't blow off either," Boyd said.
"We are still assessing the situation. I'm talking to our engineers, talking to our insurance agents. We would like to get the kids who are displaced back in the building by the end of the year, but there's just still more to come. We'll be giving regular updates at the board meetings," Hoyer said.
In the meantime, GFPS has announced a plan to relocate students while repairs continue. Kindergarten through third grade will remain at Lincoln Elementary. Fourth grade will move to Lewis and Clark, while fifth and sixth grade students will relocate to the Paris Education Center.
GFPS is also inviting parents to the gym at Paris Gibson Educational Center on Tuesday for an informational session with updates on Lincoln Elementary School.
