WEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– Nearly two weeks after the fire at West Vigo High School, work is still being done to ensure safety of the students in the building.
Speaking at the Vigo County School Board meeting on Monday, John Newport, the Chief Operating Officer, detailed much of the response over the past 13 days, and what’s to come. He said there are still 17 air scrubbers to help with air quality– adding it’s important to keep the smokey smell out of the school.
“The first thing we’re making sure is that the air quality continues to be clean and scrubbed,” he said. “Even though there are no remnants of the fire smell throughout the building, you still continue to go through that process before we have an opportunity to test it when the buildings unoccupied to make sure no smells are creeping back in.”
Two classrooms, one where the fire originated and another that suffered damage from smoke, continue to be closed, and Newport said crews will continue to work until January to make sure it doesn’t present any safety concerns.
“They’ll be closed through winter break. We went ahead and are taking our time to make sure we get it all done right. We’re going from the bottom of the roof all the way down to the floors. It’s being completely cleaned, scrubbed, painted or waxed. Every surface in those two rooms are being touched and all the ceiling tiles are being replaced, just making sure we have all remnants from the fire completely gone,” Newport said.
As far as the initial response, Newport said the main priorities for the corporation were to ensure the structure was safe, and then to begin the cleanup to get students back as fast as possible. He said they worked with a number of community partners, like the Vigo County building inspector, the county health department and local firefighters to make sure everything was in order.
And most importantly, that the building did what it was supposed to given the circumstances.
“We wanted to make sure the structure was safe, that was our biggest concern. We started that data collection process just by talking to some of the firefighters and what they have seen typically in these kind of situations. Were there any red flags, or anything that was causing them to give us pause,” he said. “Overall, the building did what it was designed to, to keep the fire contained in that part of the building.”
VCSC Superintendent Chris Himsel said making sure the building was safe– especially for students with certain pre-existing conditions– is the top concern going forward.
“It’s very, very important. We know we have lots of kids with allergies, we have lots of kids with asthma. We want to make sure that, when we reopen those rooms, those kids can go in there and enjoy a safe learning environment,” he said.
Himsel doesn’t think any procedures need to change as a result of the fire, which was ruled accidental, but he did believe it could serve as a reminder for why following all the necessary rules and precautions is critical in any setting.
“I think we had a teachable moment, and I think it’s going to make an impact on people,” he said. “I think for the rest of their lives, they’re going to remember the importance of cleaning those rags and why there are those certain procedures.”
After the fire, West Vigo Middle School students had two days of e-learning, and students at the high school had three. Himsel said there were ongoing discussions with the Indiana Department of Education to get a waiver, given the circumstances– something he hopes to get a ruling on soon.
“What I can tell you is we’ve had one of the days waived for West Vigo High School. We have not had the other two days for the high school or either day for the middle school waived at this point in time,” he said. “But we have some conversations that are scheduled for this week, and I will be having those conversations with people at the department of education, and I am hopeful after having those conversations, they will understand the gravity of why we need to know the answer to this waiver before any weather events occur, instead of after.”
In other business, Himsel said the administration was still working on getting an updated facilities study finished to help the corporation moving forward. There are conversations going on with a number of firms right now, but Himsel cited their “busy” schedules as the main hold up at this point.
“We have some people who are working with us to try and answer our questions, I have confidence we are going to find someone who will come in and do that study, and they’ll do a great job,” he said. “We want to make sure everything is independent. We want to make sure everyone is focused on independently giving us accurate information, and that’s the most important thing.”
Himsel also confirmed nearly a dozen different employee groups received wage or benefit changes for the next two school years. Those details are listed below in a document provided by VCSC.
He said there were ongoing conversations with three other employee groups– and while he didn’t name them at this point, he expressed confidence that they will soon receive changes as well.
“There are three employee groups we continue to work with. Two of those employee groups, it’s mainly because of timing of when the meeting was and when we had our discussions. There’s only 24 hours in a day, and seven days in a week, and the calendar wasn’t friendly to us in terms of getting that here tonight,” he said. “The other group is a little more complicated, there’s more things for us to talk about, I have confidence we are going to reach a decision, there’s just more things to talk about.”
