PARK VIEW SCHOOL REPAIRS TO COST $400,000.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Lancaster School District officials estimate that it will cost about $400,000 to repair a Park View Middle School classroom building that was damaged last year by arson.

"That entire building will be rebuilt. The flames were so hot, they melted the (plexiglass) windows that were in there. It's going to be taken down to the bare walls and rebuilt," Superintendent Howard Sundberg said. "The ceiling is gone. The roof has to be replaced. All the electrical wiring was ruined."

The blaze broke out shortly before 3:30 a.m. June 5 at the school in the 800 block of West Avenue J.

At the time of the fire, the room was being used for storage. No arrests had been made by last week, when district trustees last week authorized the staff to solicit bids for the repair project. The cost will be covered by insurance.

Sundberg said it was the classroom he went to when he was in kindergarten in the 1950s. The building at one time had also been used as a special-education classroom.

The building is being rehabilitated because the school needs another classroom, said Mick McClatchey, assistant superintendent for business services.

"We are gutting everything and putting all the utilities back in," McClatchey said.

The fire was detected by a sheriff's deputy who was driving down Avenue J when he smelled smoke and went to investigate, officials said.

Firefighters had the fire under control within 10 minutes.

The damaged classroom is in an older part of the campus, developed in the 1940s.

The room was being used for storage of folding chairs, tables, older computer equipment, books, a couple of TVs and other materials, officials said.

[e-mail]

[phone]