Riverbend Elementary to be closed at least three weeks

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Thursday, January 13th, 2022 4:28pm

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Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Riverbend Elementary will not open Friday and we're not talking about opening days from now, but weeks.

School District Superintendent Dr. Bridget Weiss updated us this afternoon and said inspectors were in the building Thursday.  "It looks like we're going to have to replace carpeting, flooring, drywall, and that's going to take a little bit to get done.  So that is unfortunate news but we need to take care of a few things before we bring folks back into the building."

The superintendent was asked how long that might be and what provisions might be made for students there in the interim.  "We are going to hope that it takes about three weeks is our estimate.  We have to empty out all the classrooms before we start that repair work."

Dr. Weiss said they will spend the next few days putting plans together for all services.  "We're going to get devices ready.  We're going to work on remote learning opportunities.  We will work on meal service, after-school programming, RALLY, all of those things.

Dr. Weiss said they plan to update Riverbend families  Monday.

We asked about the possibility of farming out Riverbend students to other schools.  "It's a possibility depending on the length of time this ends up taking.  We will be looking at other facilities as possible.  Obviously, this is a rather complicated situation and so we're going to take a couple of days and sort out what we can do, what we can't do, how we can provide services, again including meals to our families and so I just don't have all the answers yet."

A copper pipe not connected to the sprinkler system and thus not connected to the alarm system burst over the weekend inundating the school with water.

 

 

 

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