Century-old Edison Elementary School in Centralia is about to get a new set of bones — stronger ones, too.
The Centralia School Board at a special meeting on June 11 passed a resolution allowing the district to start highly-anticipated seismic safety work on the Edison Elementary building, which is one of the most seismically-vulnerable school buildings in the state. Work begins Monday, June 21, just in time for the start of summer.
The nearly $3 million project is being funded by the state following a 2018 study conducted by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Washington Geological Survey, a branch of the state Department of Natural Resources.
The collaborative School Seismic Safety Project (SSSP) has led to funding for seismic upgrades in 222 school buildings statewide, as well as five nearby fire stations, according to the project’s website. These are also first-round awards, with more funding for additional projects expected.
Superintendent Lisa Grant said Edison Elementary, which opened in 1918, is among the earliest schools to start work on its retrofit. It’s also one of just a handful of schools that will receive a life-safety design.
“It is intended, if we have an earthquake, to keep everyone safe. The building might not survive, but people would because that’s the desire. And it maintains the historic integrity of the building at the same time,” Grant said. “We’re excited for this project. It will make students and staff safe and help keep the historic and community value that Edison has.”
Grant said the goal of the work will be to reinforce the building enough to save lives if “the big one” — an inevitable and large earthquake — were to strike within the building's lifetime. Lives could be saved because of this project, Grant said, though it’s unlikely the unreinforced masonry building would be usable afterwards.
Following the 20th anniversary of the Nisqually Earthquake this year, The Seattle Times highlighted Edison Elementary as one of many buildings that were constructed before modern seismic codes existed. OSPI estimated in the article the state would need $3 billion to fix all of its seismically-vulnerable schools.
“We’re definitely excited. It’s going to improve the safety for staff and students, so that’s huge for us,” Principal Andy Justice told The Chronicle.
Over the summer, contractors will be busy adding supports and anchors in the walls in order to strengthen them, reinforcing high ceilings in the gymnasium and other overhead structures, and making other efforts to ensure the building is secure, Justice said.
When teachers and staff get back in the classroom in late August, Justice said the expectation is that they won’t even notice anything has changed.
The final day of school for students was Thursday.
Justice said staff-led preparations for the work recently “kickstarted full blast” and that they’ve been busy with boxing up classrooms and moving things away from walls.
“Really, it’s just everyone’s packing right now. We’ve ordered hundreds of boxes from U-Haul that we’re filling up and storing in classrooms … We’re just trying to keep it as organized as possible so that we can unpack as soon as possible, and just to really speed up that process,” he said.
Some staff members will also likely be in this weekend to finish packing. Teachers are required to take all their personal items home. With tight deadlines expected this week and when they get back in the classroom in late August, it’s likely going to be a rush, Justice siad.
“We’re up against a tight deadline to get everything done,” he said.
The Edison Elementary building has had work done on it previously. In 1982, for example, there was some structural work done on the roof to provide stability, Grant said. The results of that work are still seen today.
