PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia announced Friday the Building 21 will relocate to Strawberry Mansion High School starting Monday, March 6.
ShaVon Savage, Deputy Superintendent of Academic Services, says those from Building 21 will have their own corridor on the fourth floor of the high school, with 19 classrooms and seven smaller rooms, an area for staff and a designated place for lunch.
And, to help people adjust, there will be a two-hour delay Monday for students. School-based staff, however, are to report at their usual time.
This decision comes just days after the high school made the move to go virtual for the week after asbestos was found in the auditorium balcony, the projector room and in two stairwells during a previously scheduled Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) inspection on Tuesday.
They also detected a potential water intrusion problem.
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“The District is also working to determine if there is a connection between the plaster damage and the steam and water leaks,” Savage said. “For this building, this represents a distinct challenge, and is an issue that will take some time to understand and address.”
Savage said there is visible damage to the auditorium ceiling and that crews will “be working to build scaffolding to access the area, assess the condition and conduct any appropriate repairs.”
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She also said two types of air quality tests that measure fibers in the air were taken from the auditorium and all of them returned results that were “well below acceptable limits.” And that Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) air samples – which determine the presence of asbestos fibers – were taken both inside and outside the auditorium and came back with “no detection of asbestos structures.
An Open House will be held Sunday, March 5, for families, students and staff at Strawberry Mansion High School from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m to get a feel for their new temporary location.