BREA : Fire-Damaged School Will Be Repaired

Brea Olinda Unified School Board members this week unanimously approved spending about $150,000 to rebuild the auditorium and another building damaged by fire this summer at Brea Country Hills Elementary School.

Driver-Eddy Construction Co. crews will begin work on the project next week and will reconstruct the damaged buildings.

The work is expected to be completed before February, said Richard Honore, project superintendent.

“We want to make it great just like it was before,” said Honore, who lives across the street from the school, where his daughter attends the fourth grade.

The only difference will be in color, said Principal Patricia Ahern.

“It was orange and we don’t want it to be orange when it’s done,” she said. The new color has yet to be selected.

The fire destroyed an empty kindergarten classroom that was being converted into a science resource center and an adjacent auditorium wall. The auditorium served as a multipurpose room where assemblies and meetings were often held.

Authorities never determined the cause of the Aug. 15 fire, which began in the middle of the night inside a metal cabinet, firefighters said.