School Closed by Quake Should Reopen in Fall
The South Bay Union School District plans to reopen Bayside Elementary School, which closed after the July 13 earthquake, in time for this school year, an administrator said Thursday.
Administrators closed the Imperial Beach elementary school, which was open for summer classes, when cracks in the support beams were found after the quake. The 220 students who were attending summer school at Bayside were transferred to Harbor View Elementary School two blocks away for the remainder of the session.
Additional beams will be added as a support system for the two beams that were damaged by the quake, said Philip Grignon, superintendent of the South Bay Union School District.
“The state engineer said there was no imminent danger in opening the school in the fall,” Grignon said.
Oneonta Elementary School, which suffered minor damage during the earthquake, will be open in the fall, Grignon said.
The 28-year-old Bayside has an enrollment of 700 during the school year, and the district would have faced a problem with overcrowding if it had remained closed, officials said.
“We had an overcrowding problem last fall,” said Mayor Bill Russell. “This closure would have exacerbated the problem,” he said.
What the repairs will cost is not yet known, said David Tennebaum, the district’s architect.
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