No hint of problems before ceiling collapse at Bishop Feild, school district says

They didn't see it coming, says Tony Stack, CEO of the province's English School District, about the falling concrete that shut down Bishop Feild Elementary in St. John's.

"We're certainly counting our blessings today," he said. "We're very fortunate there wasn't an injury, or worse."

"It's a significant piece of concrete that came down from the ceiling in the gymnasium and we're very fortunate nobody was there."

• Bishop Feild Elementary shut down after concrete collapses from gym ceiling

Parents got the bad news Tuesday night. What they thought would be a day off was extended to a week, as their neighbourhood school packed up for a move to the former School for the Deaf on Topsail Road, a bus ride away.

A structural engineer had determined that Bishop Feild, an 89-year-old building on Bond Street, isn't safe for occupancy.

The 273 students at the school are expected to resume classes in their temporary digs on Oct. 31 and the school district hopes they'll be back in Bishop Feild after Christmas break.

No indications

Stack said the building had been recently upgraded, with an overhaul of its heating system from water to electrical heat, and that there was never any indication the building had structural problems that would lead to a ceiling collapse.

"Over the years, there have been cracks in the ceiling and those cracks are still there, like many older buildings," he said.

"Our maintenance people were always in the building and there was no hint that we were going to have a sudden ceiling collapse. There was no water evidence, there was no evidence of infiltration like that."

'They would have been horribly injured'

Brad Stone, chair of the Bishop Feild school council, said the chunk of concrete that came down was three-to-four square feet and it fell about 20 feet. 

He finds the incident "disturbing" and said it's fortunate no one was in the gym at the time.

"If they were really lucky, they would have been horribly injured and not killed," he said.

"That's why I'm totally okay with the fact that they've said they're shutting down the school until the structural engineer signs off on it."

Rusted metal

The ceilings at Bishop Feild consist of a layer of metal screening, a layer of concrete and, on the outside, a layer of plaster, said Stone. The ceiling in the gym collapsed because the metal screen had rusted out. 

Stone said the the ceilings throughout the entire school are built in the same way. The structural engineer took a few samples of the ceiling in other parts of the building and found more spots with a rusted screen, he said.

That's why it's closed for the next few months — at least.

"They've got to go through and assess everything," he said. "They're drilling core samples, to check and see if this thing is going to hold together."

Concerns about transportation

As chair of the school council Stone has been fielding lots of questions and concerns from parents about transportation to the temporary school.

"It's not just the distance and the time to get there, this is next door to one of the biggest high schools I've ever seen," he said. "So they've got to go in that traffic, in morning rush hour traffic."

He said parents are wondering why the School for the Deaf was chosen as the alternative, rather than a closer location.

"There are empty schools that are closer, but I've been in a number of those schools throughout the years and I know the School for the Deaf has been well-maintained," he said. 

"If we pick a different location, we're not going to be in there by Tuesday."

Parents helping parents

He said parents have been banding together to offer each other help with child care, and that his own Inbox is full of messages from parents offering to help move all of the contents of the Bishop Feild classrooms.

"I would say we've got at least a hundred parents on standby just waiting for me to let them know how to help," he said.

As for whether Bishop Feild will be fixable and, in the eyes of engineers, fit for occupancy, neither Stone nor Stack are ready to give up.

"That's not something we've turned our attention to," said Stack.  

Stone said he's had kids at Bishop Feild for eight years and he's never felt unsafe in the building.

"It's a big solid building," he said. Then he caught himself.

"Except for the ceiling."