Hancock Schools Reopen As Repairs Continue

Students in Hancock Schools are back in the classrooms Tuesday though some temporary changes are in place while repair work continues at Barkell Elementary.

Last Thursday, a portion of the roof collapsed under the weight of heavy ice and snow, causing all schools in the Hancock District to dismiss students early and cancel classes for Friday.

School officials believed classes could resume on Monday, but additional issues with the building, not related to the roof collapse, were discovered and school was cancelled again.

At the regular meeting of the Hancock Board of Education Monday, Louis Meyett from OHM explained that defaults in the trusses of the roof were found and need to be shored up before students could be allowed in elementary building.

“(The state building inspector) reviewed the trusses that we found the manufacturing defect on and also reviewed the lateral bracing condition,” said Brunet.  “And at that point, he decided that the building should not be reoccupied until the bracing was put in place and those twelve trusses are repaired.”

Most of the work is expected to be completed by the end of the week with contractors wrapping things up while students are on Spring Break the following week.

The final repairs to the section of the building damaged when the roof collapsed will take place over the summer, with that area closed off for the time being.

Barkell Elementary School Principal Dan Vaara said students in Young 5’s through 3^rd Grade will be at the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church this week, while 4^th and 5^th grade classes will be held at the Middle and High School.

Vaara said communications have been sent out to all the parents and bus schedules will remain the same.

“The first morning might not run as smoothly as it will the next morning but everything is going to be marked and it should be pretty self-evident where everybody needs to go and it’s going to be convenient for parents,” said Vaara.  “They’ll be able to pull right up to the building and we’ll have kids there for them if they need to.  Of course, at the end of the day when they all go there, we’ll have them all lined up and ready to go just like we would at Barkell.”

Temporary locations have also been set up for ISD and BHK students.