New Hamburg schoolchildren adjust to new site after school wall buckles

A New Hamburg school evacuated Friday because of a shifting wall is doing the best it can in borrowed digs.

All 125 students and 22 faculty members from Kelso C-7 Elementary have been operating from three buildings owned by St. Lawrence Church since classes resumed Tuesday.

"Right now, we have all classrooms up and functional," said superintendent Kim Burger. "We're operating as business as usual as we can get it."

Over the weekend, about 100 community members turned out to help teachers move into the St. Lawrence parish center, hall and rectory buildings, because students can't go back inside the elementary school until the wall is repaired. Then teachers were given a chance to settle in to their new spaces Monday while students were off.

An initial evaluation found the wall in the school cafeteria had settled, and the plumbing was compromised.

A building contractor returned to the school Tuesday to begin investigating what caused the wall to shift so loudly Friday.

Trim noisily popping off an I-beam is what led to the school being evacuated, and the contractor is getting ready to open the concrete next to the wall to get a better view of the potential problem.

Once the cause is ascertained, the wall can be fixed and everything can return to normal.

Burger didn't want to guess what might have been behind all of Friday's excitement.

"I could speculate all day long, but I am an educator, not a builder or a contractor," she said.

If the situation at the school isn't resolved within a week, Burger said it's possible modular buildings will be placed somewhere on the St. Lawrence property to create a more permanent-feeling place to hold classes.

Burger said the St. Lawrence parish rents the elementary school building to the district, which also pays to use the parish gymnasium.

The gym is where students are eating lunch now. Luckily, it has an even larger kitchen than the elementary school's, so the transition has been smooth.

On Tuesday, Burger said faculty and staff members participated in a debriefing session, and so far, only minor logistical issues have popped up during the move. One of the main ones has been when and where to dismiss.

"It has been as easy a transition as you could ask for," Burger said, noting help from community members and neighboring schools has been "the true testament."

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