Latest / Public Education Matters / Lessons learned from the Ashtabula high school roof collapse, one year later
Transcript
- Various student voices 0:08 Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters. Jeff Wensing 0:15 This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association. Katie Olmsted 0:26 Thanks for joining us for this edition of Public Education Matters. I'm Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 public school educators who make up the OEA across the state this time of year, a lot of those educators are looking forward to having a few days off for the Thanksgiving break. But for educators who work in Ashtabula Area City Schools, Thanksgiving break is a really hard anniversary. In 2024 while they were out on Thanksgiving break, a snow storm led to a roof collapse at Lakeside High School. It was terrible, and because the damage left the high school unusable, Lakeside High School students and educators are still spread across several buildings in the district one year later, still trying to create some sense of normalcy, still waiting for the rebuilding to begin. But believe it or not, there have also been some amazingly positive things to come out of this really challenging situation, including the whole community and other communities all around the area coming together to support Ashtabula Area Teachers Association members, members of the Ashtabula Association of Classified Employees and the entire Ashtabula school community. Last month, as the roof collapse anniversary approached, we sat down with several educators to get their perspectives. Here's our conversation with Maureen Surbella, a title one teacher who's the president of the Ashtabula Area Teachers Association. Jostalyn Krider, a math teacher who also teaches drone technology. Tyler Wilber, a history teacher who also teaches E Sports. And David Roth, the high school band and orchestra director, senior class advisor, and AATA building rep, among many things. Because, honestly, everyone on this episode wears many, many hats. They were also joined by Doug Wetherholt, the Lakeside High School principal who is now working out of the Huron Primary School, which is currently serving as the lakeside 10-12, building, while Lakeside ninth graders continue to learn in the former Mother of Sorrows school that the district bought in 2020 and had just remodeled when the roof collapse happened. Let's hear their stories. Katie Olmsted 2:41 Thank you so so much each and every one of you for sitting down with us to help us understand what happened and what happens next. I want to start with that big question, what did happen December 1, over Thanksgiving break? Help me understand, Maureen? Maureen Surbella 2:59 We had a very large snowstorm, not just a little we're in Northeast Ohio. It's very cold. It's snowy all the time. And this wasn't just a typical six or eight inches. This was 66 inches of snow over a very short period of time. Over holiday break, teachers and families were all enjoying their holidays with their families. Many of us I know, probably didn't get to the locations they wanted to for the holiday, and so we're hunkering down with this snowstorm and ready to start back to school. And then I remember getting a call that there was a little situation, and we just started to learn a little more and more. Katie Olmsted 3:45 A little situation seems a little understated. What was the little situation? David? David Roth 3:53 Well if I remember correctly, we started with a snow day or two, and then it evolved into that things happened where the amount of snow that we got, 66 inches, started taking an effect on the roof at the high school, the academic wing the front end, alarms were going off in the high school from being told alarms were going off, there was some kind of a water leak. Water was coming down from the second floor down to the first floor, and they found out that the roof was having some problems, and the snow and melting was going on, and so they were alarms are going off and things like that. And then we were soon notified after that, saying, by the way, we're going to have to extend a little bit here, which then ended up being that we had some online school going on. But yeah, at the entire front end of the building was pretty much out. Was what was going on there. Tyler Wilber 4:42 So Tyler Wilber here, some of us teachers, we have, we get notifications for certain alarms that go off, like in the restrooms, like a vape alarm or an aggression alarm. And I was getting notifications all night long during that snow storm of aggression, meaning that there's a loud noise. He's in the bathroom. And so later, you know, you put two and two together. And I, after talking with Mr. Strong and Mr. Astorino, they said, well, things were falling onto the floor, you know, they were, things were cracking and popping, and so that was setting off the aggression alarms in the restrooms. But I was getting these notifications on my phone and in my email all night long, it just kept going off, and I kept checking, and I'm like, What is going on in the building that, you know? I thought, Oh, well, it's just a malfunction somewhere. And, you know, I finally text somebody the next day and said, Hey, did you get all these alarms? And they said, Yes, I did. And, you know, and so as information started to come out that, you know, we heard the story of Mr. Strong and Mr. Astorino going in, and water rushing from the second floor to the to the first floor, and that there was an issue. And I know my wife and I, we drove by the building just to see if we could see anything. And, you know, it was at the top level of the roof, so we couldn't see anything at that point. So we just kind of thought, oh yeah, that's a lot of snow, you know, that is, that is sitting up there, and they're probably just a leak. And it wasn't uncommon, because we had, you know, some some roof issues when we moved into the building. So it was like, okay, well, we just have another, you know, one of these things though, they'll, they'll fix it, and we'll be back so. Katie Olmsted 6:18 But when you heard the scope of the actual problem here. What were we looking at there? Tyler Wilber 6:23 So when, you know, after things started settling, and they told us, yeah, you know, there's, there's a the roof is collapsing, you know, there's damage to the roof and to the second floor. And I know a lot of us veteran teachers were, you know, immediately when they said online, we thought of covid and how that didn't work for us. And, you know, so we were all put into these lifeboats with the Huron building and the Mother of Sorrows building and trying to squeeze all that together. And our leadership did an outstanding job, in my opinion, of putting everything together so that, you know, we only had, what was it a week and a half, maybe, of online, something like that. It wasn't very long that we were online, because then we went into winter break and came out of winter break in our bill in these buildings, you know. So we had the kids back in person fairly quickly. So to orchestrate all that, I don't know what went on behind the scenes. I'm not, you know, I wasn't part of any of that, but I know, you know, we went from being online and teachers just working in classrooms to finish out the semester together. You know, with we had, I know the Social Studies Department had six or seven teachers in one classroom, all teaching their classes online. The math department did the same thing. I know Mrs. Krider can speak to the math department, you know, Mr. Roth trying to do anything, you know, musical online just is almost it's impossible, you know, to try to do something like that. But everybody worked very hard to do it. Everybody kept the kids engaged, and we all just made sure we were there for each other, there for the kids. And when we came back, it was, you know, okay, we're going to do this. But again, we had the How long are we going to do this? Katie Olmsted 8:15 So very quickly you transitioned into the online learning. And then, because of all that behind the scenes work, you were able to very quickly transition back in in person, but obviously not in the high school. Where did everyone go? And how did you make that happen? Maureen Surbella 8:31 Maureen Surbella, within about 48 hours, the district was able to establish, and that's our leadership, a plan for the RE relocation and temporary housing of Lakeside High School, the 10-12 here at the Huron building and the ninth grade building at the mother of sorrow site. And then they were online. They literally were online from like December 9th through the 17th, which was a total of seven student days, and then from there, the district needed time to permanently relocate our preschool and other facets of our programming. We had some after school discovery and some other things, and they we took three days, that's that House Bill 43 to basically relocate everybody to where they needed to be. Have materials equipment. Mr. Wetherholt, I'll let you take it from there. Doug Wetherholt 9:32 Yeah, there was a lot of conversation where we could move the student body. We looked at the local mall and what it was going to cost us to secure that area and get us there. We decided we were going to go to the mother sorrows building, because we still own that and it had just been remodeled. We walked into that building to take a look to see if we could run classes in the mother sorrows buildings. We ran mathematical calculations that to get the kids in the building involved inside the fire code. Everything we could bring the kids back each grade level one day a week, and go on online learning. Well, that was never a choice based off of what happened with covid. So the decision was made that we would come to the Huron building, and we would start them for that week and a half or two weeks online, and then over Christmas break, we would transition to be back in person. So we we end up coming to the Huron building, which is now Lakeside 10-12, and we made the Mother Sorrows building Lakeside nine. We also are in the Erie building, so the music program, choir, band and art is over in that building across the campus. And then we have our units, our contained units, they are in the middle school, so we move two classes in there. So when we talk about this, we really are in four different buildings at this given moment. Katie Olmsted 10:53 What's that like for you? And what's that like for the students? Doug Wetherholt 10:57 Mr. Wetherholt, speaking again, it has been a very stressful situation. I think for everybody, we are on the max side of all our fire codes and all our buildings. We cannot do basic assemblies. We can't like if the band wants to do performance for us, we have to make arrangements to try to get to the stadium or something of nature. When we do pep assemblies, we just have to make a full field day out of it, where we're having to transport the whole student body somewhere. It's been very difficult. What we've managed to do is keep the core classes in place and saying, you know, we're going to offer drones, we're going to offer gaming, we are not going to offer other courses, such as wood shop and things that nature, because we don't have our equipment. So we got the basic core still in place, but anything extra we are we are unable to do, or there, there has to be extreme circumstances for us to get that accomplished. I personally think it's the teachers have been nothing but resilient. The students have been nothing but resilient, and they keep sticking this out. But I do know that no matter what anybody says, It is a very difficult situation for everybody. You know, doesn't matter what level you're on, whether it just be the bathrooms are too small, and yet, that's the scenario we're in. Are the classrooms have cubby spaces in them, which a traditional high school would not have those particular items in them. The teachers, you know, they don't have all their materials. They lost they lost personal items that they that, that some some people lost heirlooms that were 30 years old, that they had collected from college, or they had their lesson plans in their books from college, in their rooms, and that was all lost, and then to have to go through that grieving process of letting all that go and understanding that we were not going to get it back, and we can only do the best we can. You know that all takes a toll on a person, but the teachers are very, very resilient about getting through that for the student body. When I see the student body is you can see that there's cracks here and there with them. You know, they want their high school back. They want the traditional high school experience what they clearly deserve. You know, they deserve to have their their assemblies. They deserve to to go to prom and have homecoming, and we'll do the best we can to make sure we can guarantee those things. They also have been very, very resilient in sticking this out with us and making it happen to the best of their abilities. You know, the dilemma you run into every day and the difficulties is that that we are in such a tight space and we're not one big happy family anymore that we need to be, because we all feed off each other. We all help each other. The you know, the band playing things for us, our food service, our home ec teachers, family consumer science, cooking us lunch and doing that for the staff. Is the potato bar, whatever it may be, just to have those things available to us. We don't have any that available to us right now. So, so it's been, it's been pretty difficult. As far as I'm concerned, I do worry about the morale of the staff and how we can keep them together. We keep telling the stick this out. Stick this out. We'll get through this. But every day I know Where's where's on them, and so we're trying to find stuff that we can make sure that everybody knows how Appreciative Leadership is with them and continue to work together. Katie Olmsted 14:10 I'm talking to you October 16th, 2025 and this has been the situation being across these different buildings since the end of the year in 2024 it's been a year. Jostalyn Krider 14:22 This is Jostalyn Krider. It's definitely wearing. It's something that you never would have thought, that we I would have ever encountered in my educational journey. But as Doug has said, we're kind of resilient, and we stick together. Lakeside Strong was a big slogan that was being thrown out. And you can definitely see that among the student body, among the staff, we know in the long run that we're going to be in a building that's going to be beautiful and going to have all of these opportunities for our student body, and we're really just looking forward to that. And. That's kind of what we're leaning on as a staff. We lost a lot. I lost I didn't receive a single thing back from my classroom. We had just started the drone program. I also do robotics. We lost all of our robotic supplies. I lost all my lesson plans over 15 years. So it was definitely a struggle. Whenever you step into a building and you have nothing but administration has been tremendous. The community support has been tremendous. We got a bunch of school supplies donated to us for staff and students. So I really feel like it was, it was a bad situation, but all of the support that has been given to us has been outstanding. Katie Olmsted 15:42 How have the unions supported staff members and students through this? Jostalyn Krider 15:46 Initially, whenever everything happened, all of our union members created little goodie bags for the teachers of the high school and left them in our classrooms. And it really meant a lot to us coming in and getting that and just seeing the support that the union had behind us. So that was really nice, and we are thankful for that. Maureen Surbella 16:04 Maureen Surbella, and one of the things that I remember is shortly after the roof collapse, OEA, Mr. Scott DiMauro came, actually on site to Ashtabula and kind of toured and things, and did a tour of the campus, but they gave us a very generous donation to assist with our staff. We still have some monies that we're working on using, but we were able to provide items for not only there's the teachers, but for students. I mean seniors, you know, when they're leaving, that's their last experience. So we wanted it to be very positive and supportive and and so you know, through OEA, we were able the local Ashtabula Area Teachers Association to be able to help and the classified as well. Because, remember, they lost their kitchen items. They lost items that they were doing, and now they're relocated and, you know, had different jobs and different co workers and everything just kind of, you know, just changed in one hot minute. Katie Olmsted 17:12 I know you mentioned a little bit about House Bill 43 that was something that had to come through the state house. Can you explain a little bit about that? And maybe even the unions role in that? Maureen Surbella 17:23 It provided three waiver days. The three waiver days allowed those three days that we had to use to relocate, temporary, relocate our our materials, and get teachers, have their equipment come in. I mean, they didn't even have a pencil. So, you know, we need to get pencils on desks, and, you know, sharpeners and you know, just things to be able to function in a basic classroom, not a high technology classroom, a basic classroom. And, yeah, it was very reassuring once that was able to pass. I knew that House Bill 43 and it was spawned by Sarah Fowler and David Thomas. There are local, you know, area reps, but I think the energies that came from both our Teachers Association, Classified Association, along with district leadership, spawned we got to do something. We need to support. We need to be able to do something. And even though time was of essence, being able to have that pass definitely showed support at the state level. Katie Olmsted 18:29 So where are we now? I mean, aside from being spread out across all of these schools, where do we go from here a year later? This is Jostalyn Krider 18:38 This is Jostalyn Krider. There still are struggles in front of us, but our students are supportive. Our staff are supportive. We're definitely a lakeside community, so we're not necessarily where we would like to be. We're looking forward to that new building. We're looking forward to those opportunities for our students and but we will get there, and we will stay Lakeside strong, so. Tyler Wilber 18:59 Tyler Wilber, I would, I would say the same thing, I am a traveling teacher, so I am in the ninth grade building and the 10 through 12 building, so I can kind of make a connection with both, and to see the staff, you know, work as hard as they do every single day, just pushing forward. You know, we're not trying, trying to dwell on the past, but move forward, like Mrs. Krider said, towards our new building, we know it's coming. And you know every day we get you know a little closer to that happening. You know whenever that date may come. Maureen Surbella 19:04 Maureen Surbella, I feel like we are trying to be resilient, even though right now there's still a lot of uncertainty, but we try not to let the students know or feel that don't be fooled when they couldn't have their homecoming ceremony and they weren't able to do their events the way they are. They're not able to have their band performance or their jazz or whatever they're doing. They can't do it the way we do it. It is a reminder. But on a daily basis, smiles are on our face. We are looking at the eye on the prize. It's so important that we do move forward, and hopefully we can move forward efficiently. Efficiently. David Roth 20:17 David Roth, my students, especially the band students, are still affected every single day, because we have football games, we have concerts. Are supposed to be right now, with football games, we have nowhere actually to change, so they're like changing in a parking lot. I go in and get their uniforms, pull them out of the band room. They hang their stuff up on a fence that's going around the high school right now. They change. We take the racks back in. We repeat the process. We have nowhere to store equipment over there. We have a den that has uniforms in it right now and some other extra instruments. But that day that we were talking about the waiver days, I was told I have one day to completely empty out my band room, my storage room, my office, my library, my practice rooms, the uniform, it is like there was no way I was gonna get all that done. And they did give us extra days after that. But the band students and the orchard students, just because of how much we utilize that building more after school, they it affects them a lot. Still ending up that when we have concerts, we have nowhere to do a concert here. So I have to take the band and the orchestra to Jefferson, who offered to let us Jefferson High School. We have concerts there. So all of our performances, nothing's here on campus anymore. We have to haul everything. We have a trailer. We load up and we move around as that you know, you can tell the students are handling it. The freshmen don't know any different yet. But the sophomores, juniors and seniors, especially the seniors, you know, they're the ones that are taking it, if anyone's taking it, the hardest to be the seniors, because they want to be in the high school. They want their last year of everything they remember they saw everyone else doing as a senior. So right now that is part of it. Things had to end pep and things like, other things that we've always done. And you can see that the concern in the eyes of the students, you know, they're like, Oh, we're being let down, is like, we can only do what we can do. And I think for the most part, they understand, but you know, they're looking to the point that, oh, we're gonna be able to do this again, and hopefully it'll be soon that they can do this again, because I know they really want to. Katie Olmsted 22:21 So how soon? Like, where does, where does everything stand with the rebuilding and moving forward? Maureen Surbella 22:28 With the facts and technically, and this is Maureen Surbella, by the way, technically, we are almost a year out. The district is working to come to an agreement, a settlement, so to speak, with the insurance company that is still in process. With that said, the district also needs to in order to start turning one ounce of dirt, we have to secure the funds in order to begin the rebuild. And so with that said, the district decided, the Board of Education decided to put a bond on the ballot for the November 4 election. And if that were to pass, we could begin the phase, and possibly by 2028 am I right, Mr. Wetherholt? Doug Wetherholt 23:25 This is Mr. Wetherholt. What she said is correct. Currently, they are working with the insurance company to try to get a settlement. We should know how that looks in the next month or two. Meanwhile, there is a levy on the ballot, and there was also conversation with the governor of the state of Ohio and some other legislative branches of the state of Ohio, there's clearly meetings going on to try to make sure we can secure this fund. They are talking of the middle of 28 if everything goes our way and we can get back in the building. The building project that they presented was approximately $58 million and there's a gap in between that and what the insurance company is willing to pay, and that's why the the bond issue is on the ballot. Katie Olmsted 24:12 But in the meantime, it still is 2025, 2028 is a little ways away. What are the lessons that you have learned from all of this, and what are you taking forward with you, however long this takes? Maureen Surbella 24:27 Maureen Surbella, I think there is a sense of district community that has grown. You know, we have never had a high school grade at the elementary campus. So for leadership students to be able to be immersed into elementary classrooms for projects or events, we had a VIP day the other less than two three weeks ago, and students that didn't have a VIP come had a high school VIP for the YMCA to show their generosity and allow us to relocate our weight room to a rocket ball court. To be able to develop those relationships and partnerships for the Kent State University, for them to offer their gym for some of our high school programming last year. So there's a sense of community that I think, although we've always had, it's really amazing to see people step in just the resources of people stepping in when, when we needed it most. David Roth 25:36 David Roth, lesson learned for me is I always try and find things in the past for the ensembles to do the students who experience it's pretty much been a set way of doing things. Now I know that I and others have to think outside the box, since we don't have all of the facilities or the resources to do these things, so we have to find another way to do what we've done in the past, which is new to us. It's new to some of the students, but some of the students don't know any better, and so we just have to make it just keep going along, make them understand that, yes, this is a little bit different for the older people, but for the younger ones, it's the way it is, and that's the way they're going to remember it when they go through so just trying to find those moments again, those events, those activities, those learning opportunities that they're able to do and gain something from that they would gain in a different way if we're still in the building. Tyler Wilber 26:32 Tyler Wilber, I would say lesson be ready for anything. And yes, you can depend on other people. You can depend on other organizations. I think it was in Mrs. Surbella can correct me if I'm wrong. But some of those school supplies that we received, I believe, came from another district in Conneaut they, you know, they stepped up and sent a ton of stuff over for us and our kids. And then another district sent the kids candy. People will come together and help you know when, when needed. Maureen Surbella 27:06 And there were more than one district that that provided resources. There was also other churches and entities that provided meals to the staff when they were doing all the relocation. And so there were so many things so. Tyler Wilber 27:19 So it was like everybody's been saying in the community, our Lakeside community, was was really came together to to fight through this and continue to move forward. Jostalyn Krider 27:31 To piggyback off of that. This is Jostalyn Krider. Be grateful. Be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for what the future holds. We definitely are. We've relied on a lot. We've relied on a lot of people, a lot of organizations, a lot of different districts, and we're just grateful for all of that and be flexible. That's definitely another lesson that I've learned along the way. Flexibility comes in pretty heavy, and sometimes because we, like we've said, we had nothing, and what we've created and what we've been able to do over the past year is tremendous, and I'm super proud of my colleagues and my administration and my district as a whole because of it. Jostalyn Krider 27:31 I am so grateful to all of you and to everyone in your community for sharing your story, for keeping the hope alive and and for coming together to really make sure your students had what they need to continue to succeed. Thank you. Maureen, Jostalyn, Tyler, Doug, David 28:30 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Katie Olmsted 28:36 Now as a reminder, we recorded that conversation in mid October, in early November, unfortunately, the bond issue to rebuild Lakeside High School did not pass. The Ashtabula Area City School superintendent told the star beacon, after the election results came in, the district will continue to pursue avenues to get students back into the high school as soon as possible. But just interjecting, on a personal level, my heart hurts for all of the Lakeside High School students and staff, especially right now with a Thanksgiving break upon us. Once again, because of the Thanksgiving break, we're going to take a break from the podcast next week, but we will be back with a new episode on Thursday December 4th, as we hear from OEA's new Vice President about how his years as a local leader are shaping his work now in his statewide role, make sure you subscribe to this podcast on your favorite listening platform so you don't miss that conversation or any other conversation in the future. Because in Ohio, public education matters. Transcribed by https://otter.ai