Mayfield students find a temporary home

The Manassas Assembly of God came through for the fifth-graders of Mayfield Intermediate School.

The students will be able stay together as they attend classes at the church at 11500 New Life Way in Bristow, while their school in the city is under repair.

Mayfield was deemed unsafe after the weight of record snowfalls last week threatened to collapse the roof at the school that opened in 2006.

Manassas Assembly of God Pastor Scott Leib approached school officials as soon as he heard about Mayfield.

"I just took a shot on a whim," Leib said of contacting the school board and school administration staff with the idea letting Mayfield fifth-graders use the church's 33 classrooms.

Leib said he felt the church should pitch in and help.

"This is what churches are supposed to do," Leib said. "The reality is that Jesus was a servant and that's the kind of culture that we want to have at our church."

The board of directors at the church voted unanimously Sunday morning to lease the classrooms to Manassas City Public Schools, Leib said.

The church membership backed the vote.

"When I announced it to the congregation ... there was a loud round of applause," Leib said.

School board Chairman Arthur P. Bushnell said the original idea of disbursing the fifth-graders to elementary schools would have been disruptive since the fifth-grade class is comprised of pupils from elementary schools across the city.

"Clearly it's better for the fifth-graders and for the teachers to keep the entire group together," Bushnell said. "You couldn't just say, 'OK, all of the kids who were originally at Round [Elementary School] go back to Round,'"

"This is just the best of all possible alternatives. The community has been extremely supportive of trying to help deal with a very difficult situation," Bushnell said.

School board member Tim J. Demeria agreed.

"From my view and the views of the teachers I have spoken to, trying to keep some semblance of order, trying to keep one grade together is huge," Demeria said.

Bushnell said there has been some hopeful news about the building.

After crews removed most of the snow they were able to lower a video camera into the ceiling, and found that the roof is returning to its original position though it is not 100 percent intact, Bushnell said.

"It appears that right now ... we will be able to do the repairs and renovations from the inside the building, which will speed things up markedly," Bushnell said.

In the meantime, experts will be all over the building, Bushnell said.

"We're going to have a number of structural engineers in here making sure we understand what did happen and take steps to improve the structure before we go back into it," he said.

Insurance will cover the cost of repairs and leased space, according to Bushnell. "We will not have an impact on our next year's budget," he said.

Administration officials, the school board and Mayfield's principal, teachers and staff are working to get the children back into class by Monday, Bushnell said.

School officials have asked for donations of supplies to the misplaced students, who can't go back to the classrooms and get their own.

Students are in need of packets of wide-ruled notebook paper, safety scissors, glue sticks, high lighters, blue or black pens, large erasers, red pens, #2 pencils (no mechanical pencils), colored pencils, tissues, hand sanitizer and pencil boxes.

They also need 50 milk crates.

Donations can be dropped off at the Boys and Girls Club, 9501 Dean Park Drive in Manassas.

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