High school hallway ceiling collapses

By David Pace, EastIdahoNews.com

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    IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — The ceiling of a hallway on the second story of Idaho Falls High School gave way Friday, causing a splash on social media and raising concerns about the condition of the 72-year-old facility.

“We’re just grateful that no one was hurt and that our maintenance staff responded very quickly,” Idaho Falls School District 91 Superintendent Karla LaOrange told EastIdahoNews.com.

Photos taken Friday show the collapsing ceiling gingerly propped up by two ladders.

Classes continued uninterrupted as school employees blocked off students’ access to the damaged hallway.

While construction of the school was completed in 1952, the failing ceiling was part of a newer addition added to the high school about 20 years ago, LaOrange explained.

When the ceiling was originally installed, it consisted of ceiling tiles placed over double drywall secured by staples.

“This summer, there was some work done where workers were walking on that route,” she said. “What we think happened was that it popped the staples. Then, just over time, they gave way. The staples came undone.”

Crews worked all day Saturday to remove the ceiling and clean up the site. A company will install new ceiling later this week.

“The roof is fine and structurally sound,” she said. “… It’s the ceiling part (that fell). There are no structural things to be concerned about.”

A professional assessment of the entire new wing and its ceilings is being completed this week to check for any potential issues.

“We don’t know whether it was constructed the same way or not, so we’ll be doing an assessment of that,” she said.

An aging facility

Additionally, on Friday Idaho Falls High School’s head football coach Marty Duffin sent out a message to all the football players that “the showers in the locker room can no longer be used as they are leaking down into the offices below. A work request has been submitted to fix this, but until further notice, you can not use the showers.”

In another incident a few years ago, the gym floor began to give way during a school dance.

“We don’t put dances there anymore,” LaOrange said. “We did have an engineering company and a construction company go in and address that. It is fine to be on, but that’s one of those things that we would like to do more significant work on, if we could as part of (the district’s) facilities plan.”

Nevertheless, many parents are concerned about the current state of the facilities.

A new Facebook group called “IDAHO FALLS HIGH SCHOOL FALLING APART” has attracted 340 members in three days.

One mother’s Friday night post about the high school was shared 146 times on Facebook.

“This is a travesty, and the community needs to understand what is happening within the walls of IFHS,” Erica Tuttle wrote.

Some community members believe that constructing a new high school is the right solution, while others argue that renovating the current facility would be less expensive.

In November 2022, a $250 million school bond to build a new high school, two elementary schools and renovate Skyline High School received 58% support but failed to secure a supermajority.

In the meantime, the district maintains a 10-year facilities plan that it is submitting to the state, LaOrange said.

“In the last year, we’ve done a significant amount of maintenance within the resources that we have available to us,” the superintendent said. “We’ve done a lot of concrete work. We’ve done a lot of internal work with plumbing and things like that to try to address problems.”

“We’re trying to be more aggressive in our maintenance work … but there’s been somewhat of a lapse, and so we’re having to work to use the resources that we have to address those needs.”

LaOrange stressed that student safety is the district’s number one priority.

“The engineers and the contractors … all have said IF is structurally really sound,” she said. “The classrooms aren’t big enough. We don’t have enough outlets. There’s that kind of stuff going on, but structurally, it’s sound.”

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