At ASD we always have the safety of our students and staff as the first priority. | Wikimedia Commons
At ASD we always have the safety of our students and staff as the first priority. | Wikimedia Commons
Dear ASD Families and Staff,
At ASD we always have the safety of our students and staff as the first priority. Given the recent concerns around snow loads on roofs in the Anchorage area, the District would like to give an update on the status of our buildings and what we are doing to keep our students and staff safe.
This summer the District completed a tier 1 structural seismic assessment on every school in the District; this was initiated after the 2018 earthquake in order to confirm that our buildings were structurally sound. Since the very first large snowfall in December, the District conducted a roof snow-load assessment with engineers and no issues were identified.
After we confirmed the safety of our buildings, we began removing snow off roofs that had the most snow load, and started conducting routine inspections in all of our schools.
Recently a second snowfall assessment was completed by engineers. During the routine building inspections that took place this weekend the Maintenance Department identified two schools that had damage in the ceiling going through the libraries- Spring Hill Elementary School and Klatt Elementary School. The libraries in these schools will be closed until after an engineering assessment is complete on each of these ceilings.
There are three other schools with the same building design- Bear Valley Elementary, Fire Lake Elementary, and Ravenwood Elementary. Out of an abundance of caution, the Administration has also closed these libraries until after an engineer assessment is complete on each of these ceilings.
There is no risk of catastrophic collapse. There is a risk of ceiling pieces coming down. There is no indication that ceilings in these buildings are damaged outside of the libraries.
We will continue to monitor and keep you updated as new information becomes available.
Have a good evening and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow!-Team ASD
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