Crestline students to attend other Evergreen schools

Fire displaces 500 Crestline Elementary students

o Evergreen Public Schools is asking anyone who wants to donate money for school supplies and books to phone 360-604-4088 today. They are requesting people not send books because those selections might not fit teachers’ needs. Cash is best, spokeswoman Carol Fenstermacher said.

o Donations can be sent to the Evergreen School District Foundation in care of Community Relations, P.O. Box 8910, Vancouver WA 98668-8910.

o Friends of Fire Station 6 President Mary Elkin said her group has partnered with Additional Self Storage to collect and distribute school supplies for the children and teachers of Crestline Elementary. Supplies needed include copy paper, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, erasers, water color paints, tissues, glue sticks, hand sanitizer, playground equipment (balls, jump ropes, etc.), markers, dry erase markers, wide-ruled notebook filler paper and wide-ruled composition books. Supplies can be dropped off at any Additional Self Storage location.

For more information or to volunteer to help transport supplies, contact Friends of Fire Station 6 at 360-896-2808 or email friendsoffirestation6@gmail.com.

o All 10 Riverview Community Bank branches in Clark County are collecting funds for the Evergreen School District Foundation.

o Cash donations and school supplies are now being accepted at the Cascade Park Burgerville, 11704 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd., and the Fisher’s Landing Burgerville, 16416 S.E. McGillivray Blvd. The restaurants are planning a community fundraiser at both locations soon to benefit the school, students and teachers, said Burgerville spokeswoman Sara Perrin.

Officials from Evergreen Public Schools are busy making plans today as to where the Crestline Elementary School’s students, along with teachers and staff, will be sent for the remainder of the school year. It’s likely school will resume Thursday, according to Carol Fenstermacher, spokeswoman for Evergreen Public Schools.

The school suffered catastrophic damage in a fire early Sunday. The ruins were still smoking this morning. No cause has been determined.

Superintendent John Deeder met with all the district’s elementary school principals today to determine which schools have space to house the displaced Crestline students and staff.

“We’re finalizing where the kids will be going,” Fenstermacher said. “We’ve narrowed it down to six or seven schools.”

“We think we’re going to be able to keep them all together by grade band. (For example) all the fifth-grade students and their teachers would all go to the same school,” Fenstermacher said.

The district plans to make an announcement Tuesday about where displaced students will be sent. Fenstermacher said the district will need time to notify families about where the kids will be placed.

“We need to make sure if we’re putting four new classes into a school, that the school has the support it needs in regards to school lunches, P.E. and other logistics,” Fenstermacher said.

Once that’s finalized, there will be a meeting with all the Crestline teachers, and teachers will need to go set up their new classrooms.

In all, 22 Crestline classes will need to be relocated. Most grade levels at the kindergarten- through fifth-grade building have four sections — classrooms — of students. The exceptions are second and fourth grades, which each have three sections.

The district sent a form to all principals across the district with a list of things Crestline teachers will need and asked schools to loan them.

“Teachers lost all their books, math manipulatives, bookcases, white boards, tables, chairs,” Fenstermacher said.

“Everybody in the district is coming together to make this happen,” Fenstermacher said. “Our transportation folks will need to figure out how to get these kids to the various schools. For the kids who walk, where are we going to have them meet to catch the bus?”

Every school district in the area has called and offered help.

“Superintendents are calling superintendents. Facilities folks are calling facilities folks. Throughout the district, we’re hearing from the other districts,” Fenstermacher said.

All the school districts all have agreements to help each other in times of emergency.

“A perfect example is that we have counselors available to the kids now for Crestline Elementary. Members of the SMART Team are volunteering to counsel kids,” she said. Those are counselors from throughout the county, not just Evergreen.

The district is meeting with its insurance company, and an insurance representative was on site yesterday. In all likelihood, it will be fall 2014 before a rebuilt school can be opened.

“One of the fire guys walked me around to the back of the building. There’s nothing left,” Fenstermacher said. “You think about your childhood and how much of your memories are wrapped in your elementary school.”

Susan Parrish: 360-735-4515; susan.parrish@columbian.com; Twitter: col_schools.

This story will be updated.