St. Kevin School in Springfield, Pennsylvania, prepares to welcome St. Francis of Assisi students after fire
SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (CBS) – Investigators are still working to figure out the cause of last week's fire at St. Francis of Assisi School in Springfield, Delaware County.
The Oct. 7 fire destroyed the building housing the lower grades of the school. Classes have been canceled for the last week and a half for those students. But preparations are underway to return to the classroom.
Nearby St. Kevin School is stepping in, offering nine classrooms to the 150 students affected. But some of these classrooms haven't been used in years.
From the drilling and the toy sorting to the cleaning, it's all hands on deck to get the school ready. Even the little ones are doing their part.
"I was organizing everything," Salvatore, a 6-year-old student from St. Francis of Assisi School, said. "So I can make the classroom look nice."
Students in the lower grades will go to St. Kevin starting Monday. Students in the upper grades already went back to class because their building wasn't damaged in the fire.
"We're hoping that in the next two months, we can get the school classroom modulars put on the St. Francis campus, so that way we can all be together," Nicole Hamilton, the principal of St. Francis of Assisi School, said. "Being separate is not my goal at all."
The cafeteria at St. Kevin School is being used as a storage place for all the donations that St. Francis of Assisi School has received, from pencils and chalk to protractors and scissors.
"We were in a state of shock a week ago and the community has overwhelmed us with such love and happiness and support, that we are so grateful," Amy Travers, preschool teacher at St. Francis of Assisi School, said.
Travers said she can't wait to see her students' faces when they walk into their temporary new classroom.
"I'm excited for the first day of school Monday," Travers said. "I think it's going to be like the first day of school we had in September."
She's filled with gratitude as the work continues to return to normalcy.