Mid-Del schools working to repair storm damage at high school before new school year

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. (KFOR) — Leaders in Mid-Del Public schools are working to come up with plans on how to start the school year if emergency storm damage repairs at Midwest City High School can’t be completed by the first day of school.

Mid-Del Public School Superintendent Rick Cobb says insurance adjusters inspecting Midwest City High School after a severe storm blew through last month found the top layer of a vaulted roof over a common area on the campus had slid several inches off the trusses supporting it.

“It has moved on one side, about seven inches and on the other side about two to three inches,” Cobb said.

While the steel and concrete bones of the 45-year-old building are still perfectly sound, the roof sliding off the frame was enough for the district’s insurance company to deem the building unsafe to occupy until a structural engineer could look at it.

After a report from a structural engineer at an emergency-called meeting Thursday, the Mid-Del school board voted to move forward with a temporary plan to fasten the roof in place for now, with plans for a full-replacement at a future time.

“We have 34 days until the first day of school,” Cobb said. “The construction management firm that was here today, talked about the potential timeline they said that we're looking at possibly four weeks… So that's really, really cutting it close. We'll have people back on contract who can't go into their offices or into their classrooms before the first day of school.”

The dilemma the district is facing now: where to house the school’s 1,300-plus students if they can’t use the building when school starts?

“We have started looking at a hodgepodge of solutions,” Cobb said. “Every student has a computer, every teacher has a laptop. We could have some combination of virtual days or some shared spaces. We just don't have that fully planned out yet.”

It may take some improvising, but district leaders say it’s the only option they’re willing to accept.

“Ultimately, what it comes down to is we're not going to occupy that part of the building and the campus until it's safe,” he said.