Eunice Elementary reopens

Eunice Elementary reopened Friday after being shutdown for three days following a fire on Tuesday.
The school lost 11 classrooms in the fire that destroyed a special education classroom and heavily damaged 10 other classrooms.
St. Landry Parish School Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said about 110 students were displaced by the fire.
In Friday’s reopening, 52 fourth-graders are restarted school at Highland Elementary.
The students are being bused from Eunice Elementary to Highland in the morning and returned in the afternoon.
The third-graders and special education students are remaining at Eunice Elementary. They are going to classes in the available spaces such as the library and music room.
The new arrangement, which was explained to parents at a meeting Thursday evening at First Baptist Church, will continue until the school district opens a temporary building on the Eunice Elementary campus, Jenkins said.
The temporary building will take at least 30 days to obtain and equip for classes, he said.
The school district’s insurer, Dupre, Carrier, Godchaux Insurance, has indicated it will pay for the temporary building, he said.
The cost of replacing the fire-damaged building has not been determined, Jenkins said.
The deductible is $25,000, he said.
The fire may have a positive impact on the school district’s finances.
At the Aug. 2 St. Landry Parish School Board meeting, roof replacements for Eunice Junior High School and the three buildings at Eunice Elementary were approved at a cost of $1,099,000.
Replacing the roof, along with the structure at the fire-damaged building, may now be paid for through the district’s insurance policy, he said.
The roof projects will continue at the other buildings, he said. The plan was for roofing work to be done after school hours.
Students, who were out three days, will likely make the time up by adding minutes to the school schedule, he said.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said Friday’s reopening brought some problems in the morning.
On Monday, he is asking parents and students to use the crosswalks around the school and to stay on the sidewalks.
“It got pretty dangerous because people were parking on the street and walking across the street between buses. Basically, some not even paying attention to the oncoming cars,” he said.
On Monday morning, officers will be on the scene to make sure people use the sidewalks and crosswalks, he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Jenkins said the state fire marshal has not completed its investigation.
The preliminary finding is the fire started with an electrical malfunction in a window air conditioning unit sometime after 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Jenkins did not know the age of the window unit that doubles as an air conditioner and heater, but said the school district replaces about 150 of the units each year.
The damaged building is about 55 years old, he said.
There were no injuries reported in connection with the fire.
Investigators learned the fire was discovered by a janitor about 30 minutes after he opened a stand-alone building on the campus at 5 a.m., according to a news release from the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office.