Superintendent plans for temporary classes

Manassas school superintendent Gail Pope has a plan for the Mayfield Intermediate School students, who are without a school building.

Public safety officials and city-contracted engineers deemed the school unsafe after the weight of record snowfalls bowed ceiling trusses and cracked at least one of the school's interior walls.

In an emergency school board meeting Thursday, Pope told the Manassas City Public Schools School Board that she hoped to have Mayfield's 1,000 students in temporary classes in less than two weeks.

Until then, the students stay out of school.

"We are trying to open school in nine days with zero things -- no instructional supplies, no office supplies, no computers, no telephones," Pope told the board.

To date, Pope has plans to lease the old Marsteller Junior High School from the Manassas Baptist Church and house the sixth- graders there.

Tentative plans would have Mayfield's fifth-graders attending classes at several of the city's elementary schools.

"Round and Weems will take the majority of the classes," Pope said.

Pope is also working with the Assembly of God Church on Va. 28 in Manassas, which has 25 classrooms that could hold all of the fifth-graders if things can be worked out between the church and the school board.

"My hope would be that we have our fifth- and sixth-grade students in a classroom by February 22," she said.

A special meeting will be held for Mayfield parents Sunday at 2 p.m. at Osbourn High School. A meeting for Spanish speaking families will be held at the same location at 4:30 p.m. Staff will share an overview of what has transpired over the past week and what the plans are to continue instruction. All attendees have been asked to wear black and gold to show their Mayfield pride and support. Due to the anticipated number of attendees and the size of the auditorium, the administration asks that only parents and their Mayfield students attend the meeting.

School board Chairman Arthur P. Bushnell said putting the fifth-graders back in the elementary schools was not the "best solution" but it is "workable."

"The better solution, if it works out, is that all of the sixth grade is in one place and all of the fifth grade is in one place," Bushnell said.

Officials consider the building, which opened for school in 2006, so unsafe that no one is allowed to go in for supplies and equipment. No one knows when people will be able to get back inside, Bushnell said.

"We don't know the extent of the damage, and we can't know that for some period of time," Bushnell said. "We know that for some period of time we will not be able to get back into the building."

Mayfield Principal Jeff Abt said his staff is ready to teach even if they have to teach with blackboards and chalk again.

"The reality is with good teachers and kids committed to learning, it'll work," Abt said.

"They're all ready. The e-mails coming to me from my staff are unbelievable in their words of encouragement and they're very, very supportive," Abt said.

Designed to code

The roof of the school was designed to handle 25 pounds per square foot, but John Frankhouser of Adtek Engineering said the load of the snow on the roof of the school was twice that.

"It was almost 200 percent of the original design capacity," said Frankhouser, whose Fairfax-based company designed the school. "This was designed to code, but there was an excessive amount of snow."

Bushnell said insurance would cover the damage.

Francis J. Teevan of the Manassas Fire and Rescue Department told the board that crews would be removing the snow from the roof of the building using scaffolding and two cranes.

Frankhouser said that surveyors would survey the building from outside using laser technology to see if the building is moving as snow removal continues.

Since no one can get inside, the engineers can't say whether the building is in danger of collapsing and urged people to stay away, Frankhouse said.

"If this building crashes down, these walls could fall in any direction," Frank-house said.

Teevan said they will know more once the snow is gone.

"Once we remove that snow, we'll have a better idea of what that building is going to do," Teevan said. "Keep in mind that we could take all the snow off and it could still come down."

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.