High school students are currently attending classes in four different buildings as repairs to the damaged building continue.
SAYBROOK, Ohio – Students at Ashtabula Lakeside High School are finding new places to study after a roof collapse left their building unsafe.
The incident occurred shortly after Thanksgiving when heavy lake snow caused the roof to partially collapse. After an assessment, the Ashtabula Area City Schools superintendent said engineers determined the building was structurally deficient.
“Right now the construction company is on site and has fenced off the building,” said Douglas Wetherhold, principal of Lakeside High School. “They are starting to dismantle the building and are working to get us back there as quickly as possible.”
Temporary academic accommodation
In the weeks following Thanksgiving, district officials worked quickly to ensure students could continue their education in person. For most of December, students moved to online learning while the district developed a plan to split the high school's 850 students among four other school buildings.
“This is our temporary new school,” Wetherhold said of the former Huron Elementary School on Wade Avenue, which now houses grades 10-12. “It's been pretty amazing to see this change over the last 30 days because everything went right” around Thanksgiving. And here we are, just after Christmas, entering a new building.
Students in Lakeside High School's current 10-12 building participate in band, art and choir at nearby Erie Intermediate School. Ninth graders attend classes in the old Mother of Sorrows Catholic school building two miles away, while some senior classes are held in the middle school, which is on the same campus as the now-vacant high school.
Adapt to changes
For students like Liam Beatty, who is a senior this year, things have come full circle.
“I’m ending where I started,” Beatty said. “It’s a little nostalgic to be back in all the classrooms I was in as a kindergartener. I never thought I’d be here again, so it’s kind of cool.”
The temporary high school for grades 10 to 12 has undergone a renovation – including a new coat of paint in the school's colors – to make students feel more comfortable.
“We take the photos and things we have of our sports teams in the other building,” Wetherhold told 3News. “They come to this building … so they see themselves when they (students) walk through these hallways.”
Despite some mishaps in the transition process, students and staff are making the best of an unexpected situation.
“We’re still learning, we’re still working on our daily school routine,” Beatty added.
Looking ahead
The district managers are optimistic about the future. They hope to reopen portions of the high school by August. The full return is planned for January 2026.
3NEWS INVESTIGATED: Roof collapse highlights history of structural problems at Ashtabula Lakeside High School