Hundreds of Berkeley middle schoolers are preparing to start the new school year at a temporary site after getting displaced from their campus.
Engineers discovered extensive dry rot in the walls of Longfellow Middle School over the summer, making it too dangerous to occupy.
"We learned just after the school year finished that the school had some major structural damage, dry rot, and would potentially be closed for the next two years," parent George Torgun said.
The school district said engineers discovered the problem as they were modernizing one of the buildings. When they removed the stucco, they found extensive dry rot, primarily on the plywood shear walls underneath. They said it was caused by the building's intricate gutter system.
"The back of those gutters were actually slightly lower than the front, so when those gutters would fill up just because of large amounts of rain and the downspouts couldn't keep up with it, instead of the water spilling over the front, it ran down the back and it ran behind the stucco," Berkeley Unified School District Assistant Superintendent John Calise said.
The school’s 450 students will be moved to a new site: the Berkeley Adult School campus nearly two miles away. The adult students have been relocated to several other locations.
While the district has published a frequently asked questions section online, Torgun said communication with parents has been minimal.
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"There’s a lot of uncertainty about what the campus will be like, will the kids have the same resources, will they have sports fields," he said.
Torgun also said he and other parents are highly troubled that their children were going to school in a building with so much damage.
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Calise acknowledged the damage was likely there for years.
"Just to know that the site was unsafe and if we had an earthquake there could have been some major issues," Torgun said. "It was troubling to learn that. I do hope they can address it soon."
The district insists this is a one-off problem. It is now waiting on the state architect to design and approve repairs.
