Salpointe Catholic High School has a lot of community support and a strong student and alumni base. They will all face a challenge in the next few weeks as the school works to overcome a serious fire last night.
“It’s devastating. It’s devastating. I will tell you. We are a resilient community and we will get through this.”
School President Kay Sullivan does not have long to be ready to open August 8, despite a major building badly damaged, along with all the desks, books, and computerized teaching tools of a modern high school inside it.
“We recognize that the 700 wing is pretty devastated. So that's a loss of six classrooms. We begin school on August 8. Right now our intent is to move forward, potentially with modular buildings or other options here on campus.”
Supply chain issues could also hamper the school’s ability to replace damaged technology, desks and other classroom materials.
Tucson Fire says the fire was so intense it was not safe to send firefighters inside. They had to stay outside and put the fire out from there.
Arson investigators worked to figure out what caused the fire. They are the experts in determining cause but arson investigators on a site does not automatically mean arson is suspected.
Salpointe has a strong community of alumni, students and staff ready to volunteer to help the school recover.
Assistant Principal Anthony Gerrettie says his phone lit up as soon as people heard about the fire.
“Let us know what we can do. And students showed up last night saying, Hey, how can we help we love this place. It's just an outpouring of support. We're eager to get in. We're eager to get working to get ready for the school year.”
But volunteers can not go into the damaged building unless it’s declared safe.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
