The Glendale Elementary School District will get state support to fix structural deficiencies that forced the immediate closure of two of its schools.
At a meeting of the State Schools Advisory Board Monday, officials were granted $2.4 million to fix problems at Challenger Middle School and Landmark School.
The issues were discovered during recent improvement projects on the twocampuses and could lead to the buildings being closed for up to five weeks.
Students at both schools had classes canceled through Wednesday while the district worked out a plan for where to send students while workers fixed the structural issues. In order to accommodate the 1,450 displaced students, classes at two other schools will also be impacted.
"It's not easy to find a babysitter - mid-week," said Maureen Peterson.
Peterson and her husband, Steven, have two children who attend Landmark.
"I don't want to say, like, the school's a babysitter, but everybody is off routine," she said.
The working parents do understand the school's need to shut down, but are still struggling to figure out the logistics of how this swap will work.
"Five weeks of repairs, so that's a big chunk of the school year," Steven Peterson said. "That's like a whole summer break basically right there that we're having to figure out what we're going to do with our kids."
On Tuesday, school officials said the Alhambra Elementary School District will allow an unused school to be used for students from Challenger Middle School. Students will attend classes at Alhambra Family Resource Center which is located on 39th Avenue. The building has 26 classrooms and can house 650 students enrolled in fourth through eighth grade.
Students will not report to school until September 16. Logistics are still being worked out, including transportation plans, for more information click here. An informational meeting is scheduled for September 14th at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Glendale Elementary School District offices.
Landmark students will have class at Desert Spirit in the morning, with Desert Spirit students having class in the afternoon.
There will only be morning or afternoon sessions for students throughout the duration of repairs. Officials said certain classes, such as physical education, will have to be cut in order to make the schedules work.
Construction to fix Challenger and Landmark could begin as early as this week, according to a district spokesperson.
