School's out for the rest of the week for St. Joseph's students following a fire Wednesday morning at the north-end Barrie high school.
Crews responded to a "small fire" in one of the washrooms shortly before 9 a.m. on April 10. It was extinguished by school staff, but created a large amount of smoke, necessitating ventilation of the building on Cundles Road East.
No injuries were reported.
A board official said earlier Wednesday that the school was safely evacuated. The decision was made to dismiss students for the day.
In a notice sent to the school community shortly before 6 p.m. this evening, principal George Luck thanked everyone for their "calm response" and for following directions during the evacuation.
"We do have unfortunate news to share related to the extensive remediation efforts that are required in order to ensure that it is safe to return to school," he added.
Luck also commented on the incident itself.
"This act of vandalism is very disappointing and has caused a significant disturbance to our entire school community," he said. "This one selfish and dangerous act has negatively impacted so many people and we are urging anyone who has information to reach out to the school directly."
The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board has retained a third-party contractor to assess, repair and remediate any damage caused by the fire. Air-quality testing also needs to be completed.
"It is estimated that this work will go into the weekend for completion," Luck said. "This means that the school will be off-limits to all staff and students for the remainder of this week.
"We will not be transitioning to online learning because all learning material and devices are in the school and can’t be retrieved," he added.
Wednesday's fire has also led to several scheduling changes.
Parent-teacher interviews set for Thursday night have been cancelled. Luck says teachers will contact families who requested interviews by phone/email next week.
The semi-formal dance planned for Friday has also been postponed.
"We will examine the calendar to attempt to reschedule," said the principal. "If this is not possible, we will provide refunds."
The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test will be rescheduled for Wednesday, April 17 and Thursday, April 18.
There will be no access to the school to pick up personal belongings as the building is off limits. There will be "no exceptions," says the notice.
School officials will email students and staff Sunday evening with an update on the progress of deep cleaning, repair and remediation over the weekend.
"We will hope and pray that we can return to our building on Monday," Luck said. "Once again, we appreciate all the co-operation and support that we received from so many today."
