Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School Set To Begin August 19; Classes Working Around Fire

School will resume in Prescott on Aug. 19 for students in grades K-12. Teachers will return to campus on Aug. 15.

Life in the education community will not be quite normal for the 1996-97 academic year. This is because of the damage done to Prescott High School in an April 1 fire.

The fire, though, will not deter the faculty and staff from doing their job and teaching the area's young people.

In fact, Superintendent Don Johnston said bids will be opened at 2 p.m. Aug. 22 to see what the estimates are on rebuilding the damaged portion of PHS.

The principal's office, along with the computer labs and the ceiling of the lobby will have to be completely replaced. In addition, the back wall of the auditorium will have to be torn down and rebuilt as well.

Johnston said the auditorium's seats have already been removed and cleaned and are in storage awaiting the repairs be made before being put back.

Computer classes will be held in the new lab at Prescott Elementary School, as they were at the end of last year after the fire.

All other classes, Johnston said, will be held in their normal places. This means the gymnasium will be returned to the coaches for basketball.

Cleaning, he said, has been finished. At this time, the district is waiting for carpet to be installed in the library and band hall. This should be done later this week.

Once the carpet is installed in the library, Johnston said, the shelves will be replaced and the books put back.

To date, he said, the district has submitted insurance claims totalling $742,000, with the bill from ServiceMaster (the company that cleaned the building) amounting to $315,000.

"They did an excellent job," he said. "We're pleased with them."

At the time of the fire, some people didn't believe the school had burned. This was because of the date, April 1. Several thought reports of the fire were April Fools' jokes.

However, they soon learned the blaze was real and there were no jokes.

The community rallied around the district with people volunteering to help in any way they could.

Graduation was held in the football stadium, with the weather cooperating. Had it rained, everyone would have gotten wet because there was no alternative site for the ceremonies.

Soon, though, the sounds of construction will be heard at PHS as rebuilding will take place.

But it will take a great deal of time before anyone forgets the PHS fire of 1996.