GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls School Board will meet Monday evening to discuss its plan going forward for Lincoln Elementary School after a major windstorm tore part of the roof off the building on Sunday, March 8, 2026.
First responders, faculty, and Great Falls Public Schools staff were hard at work Monday to prepare for an unexpected transition.
Tim McGonigal reports - watch the video here:
For a building with no classes, Lincoln was a flurry of activity on Monday morning.
Great Falls Public Schools administrator Lance Boyd said the district worked through the night on contingency plans and late Monday morning received the OK from Great Falls Fire Rescue to gain temporary occupancy of the building.
"At about noon yesterday, we got calls that the center section of the roof at Lincoln Elementary blew off," Boyd said. "We're super lucky that both the flagpole and the tree out front were able to stop the roof to protect the houses in the neighborhood around Lincoln right now."
Boyd said the temporary occupancy will allow some students to remain in the building.
"What that temporary occupancy will allow us to do is keep grades kindergarten, first, second and third in the building at Lincoln," Boyd said.
Boyd said for the time being, the rest of the student body will be relocated.
"Fourth grade will go to Lewis and Clark Elementary, and fifth and sixth grade at this time would go to Paris Gibson Education Center on that side of it," Boyd said.
Boyd said special education students will remain at Lincoln, and the building will still have hourly fire checks while students and staff are inside.
While Sunday's wind event caused damage throughout Great Falls, the Lincoln incident was the most significant. Great Falls Fire Rescue called in extra resources to help with the cleanup.
Great Falls Fire Rescue assistant chief Nate Schmidt said crews are focused on getting students back to learning as quickly as possible.
"We're just assisting with boxing up materials and classroom supplies and getting those loaded up and where they need so we can get education right back up and rolling as fast as we can," Schmidt said.
Schmidt said the insulation dispersed during the incident presented a challenge. While snow on top of it initially made it more of an issue, it may not be as bad as it could have been.
"The silver lining of that is that the moisture then encases that insulation and it kind of takes away that inhalation hazard," Schmidt said.
Officials noted that the insulation does not contain asbestos.
Schmidt said there have been no evacuations in the neighborhood but still encouraged people to avoid the area.
"I just ask people to be patient with us. Just know that we're here. I've got off duty personnel here working on this situation," Schmidt said. "The cleanup is coming. But we've got to assess the damage and mitigate any potential hazards moving forward with the next event that's coming."
Boyd said while the incident is unfortunate, it happening on a Sunday helped avoid a potentially much more dangerous situation.
"Everybody is safe. You can replace things. You can replace classrooms and fix classrooms and reassign classrooms. You're never going to be able to fix something from the safety component," Boyd said.
GFPS will host parent information meetings in the gym at Paris Gibson Education Center on Tuesday, March 10 at the following times:
- Grades 5-6: 4:30pm to 5pm
- Grades 3-4: 5pm to 5:30pm
- Grades 1-2: 5:30pm to 6pm
- Kindergarten: 6pm to 6:30pm
