Brown School roof collapse

[ron_newman]

The Brown School's roof collapsed last night. See link for story and photos. Fortunately the building was unoccupied at that hour. (hat tip to prunesnprisms for bringing this to my attention)

Edited to add: More detailed report at Wicked Local Somerville and Boston Globe report

Wasn't there a whole week of school closure in February, specifically to allow clearing snow from roofs? And the city was using drones to survey these roofs? I don't understand how this happened.

Comments

[cos]

This article has a bit more info:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/03/11/partial-roof-collapse-closes-benjamin-brown-school-somerville/NcCRrosLVIyYN7OcyZNHcP/story.html

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I added your link to the post.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

(You accidentally pasted in the Wicked Local link again for the Boston Globe link.)

[ron_newman]

oops, fixed.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the rapid melting caused a lot of snow and ice to fall from the pitched roof of the school onto one area that has a flat roof.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

This.

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

My child goes to the Brown. I just got an email that says, in part:

"Best practices generally allow up to 18 inches of snow on roofs. Our teams were instructed to remove any excess snow to achieve safe depths well below that acceptable level, in most cases to depths of 6 inches or less. All schools, including the Brown School, were evaluated for roof snow prior to, during and after completion of snow removal."

"We are still in the midst of a full evaluation of this incident, but our initial review of the cause of the collapse points to the likely combination of several possible contributing factors, none of which would have caused the collapse on their own including, among others: (1) melting of the less than 1 foot of snow on that section of the roof, (2) wood rafters that were found today to be weakened by pre-existing partial rotting that would not have been evident without ripping open the walls as there were no visible leaks, (3) rain that added additional water to the roof overnight. But again, we are still in the midst of a full evaluation and further updates will be provided."

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

I just heard about this from mom. eek!

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

My oldest goes to Brown.

There is supposed to be an information session tomorrow (Thursday) night for the families, so hopefully we will know more soon.

My main concern at this point is the logistics of getting my kid to and from school at the new temporary location. Like the bulk of Brown students she will be relocated at the Edgerly school which is in East Somerville. Traffic around Brown is bad enough in the mornings with only a fraction of the kids being driven to school. If we're all expected to get our kids to the other side of the city on our own it's going to be a traffic nightmare.

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

I share this concern too. We live w/i walking distance of the Brown, but we always drive b/c my daughter is not a morning person! Then there are the families who have to figure out the logistics of more than one location if their kids' ages span the range of K-6.

[irilyth]

Any idea if they're thinking about buses (e.g. from Brown to Edgerly), so people could drop off at the usual place in the usual way, and then the kids would ride en masse from there?

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

If you are a Brown parent: Can you go to the meeting tonight? That's a good question to bring up there.
My husband and I are going.

[irilyth]

I'm not actually, just a nearby nosenheimer. :^) Good luck with it!

[mamabunny72.livejournal.com]

Oh, haha! You bring up a great question and it got me wondering too! I'll jot down a note to ask the Superintendent and Mayor.

[ron_newman]

Can you (or someone else) summarize the meeting here, for anyone who needs the info but couldn't go?

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

I just added a very brief summary below.

Post meeting update

[greyautumnrain.livejournal.com]

There will be bussing from Brown to the alternative locations, so yay. This does mean we will probably all need to show up with our kids at ~7:30, which is going to be No Fun, but it sure beats the alternative.

There was a whole lot said in the meeting. I left after two hours when it was clearly no longer productive, but in general it seemed to me that the superintendent, mayor, et al were all on top of things, interested in constructive suggestions, and generally doing a pretty good job handling a complicated logistical situation.

The main outstanding item is how we are going to make up the extra missed school days, and it looks like the main issue there is negotiating with the teacher's union, which is no doubt tricky.

Oh, and they are aiming to start school for Brown students again on Monday, but can't promise that it absolutely will happen.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

For those that commute through the Kidder/Willow intersection, here's the new traffic info:

One bus will leave the Brown @ 7:00. Multiple buses will leave the Brown @ 7:30. Afternoon buses will arrive around 3:00, and 5:45/6:00ish. (This means there should be no Brown School kid related traffic between the usual 8:00-8:15 rush). I am sure there will be construction truck traffic throughout the day. The way the fence is currently configured, construction vehicles will have to enter the work area from Josephine Ave.

They estimated that it will take a month to re-open the school.