Students will not return to Lakeside High School in Ashtabula County's Saybrook Township any time soon and perhaps not for the rest of this academic year after heavy snow caused its roof to collapse, according to Ashtabula Area City Schools officials.
Superintendent Lisa Newsome said in a press conference Thursday that roughly 800 high school students will be attending school remotely from Dec. 9 to Dec. 17, followed by a slightly early Christmas break. Meals will also be provided on a grab-and-go basis.
“I said from the beginning we did not want to do remote learning, but we will be doing this the right way," she said.
After the break, Newsome said, high school students will be split between two different buildings and students in other grades may need to be moved to different sites to accommodate. Newsome said the district will continue with this arrangement through the end of the school year, until structural engineers deem the high school building safe to occupy.
"We want to make sure that our students and our staff and our parents coming into those buildings are safe," she said.
WKYC reports issues with the Lakeside High School roof began in 2006, shortly after it was built. The district sued the now-defunct construction company for alleged shoddy work. The Ashtabula Star Beacon reported that buckling of the roof caused by a snowstorm in 2018 cost the district $70,000 in repairs.
Newsome said the school district has been working to come up with solutions to the problems caused by the heavy snowfall, and has hired a contractor to remove snow that's accumulated over the last week.
