SANDY — Fire damage has forced more than 600 Sandy Elementary students to squeeze into six neighboring schools — indefinitely.
Jordan School District, meanwhile, is trying to get the word out to families, some of whom have no telephones, through media outlets, word of mouth and letters the district believes will be delivered today.
Posters also have been hung at the 54-year-old school, which principal David Gomez described Friday as desolate.
"This school has been around and been the center focal point for this Sandy community here, and it hurts," he said.
The district did not have a damage estimate Friday.
Fire broke out after school Thursday afternoon. The few school workers and about 40 children from Salt Lake County's Head Start Program still in the building were safely evacuated. School workers reported smoke coming through the vents, and they pulled the fire alarm.
Insulation on a retaining or separation wall inside the utility room that was ignited by a welder's torch started the fire, said Sandy Deputy Fire Chief Mike Veenendaal.
A spark from the torch apparently got inside the insulation and smoldered for awhile, finally breaking out into a fire after the welder had left, he said.
No school was held Friday, a regularly scheduled day off for district teachers to prepare for next week's parent-teacher conferences.
The school will require major repairs because of smoke and water damage, the district reports. School workers were not allowed in the building Friday, spokesman Mike Kelley said.
Monday might not be much different, but students still are asked to meet at the school by 8:30 a.m. — 10 minutes after their school day typically starts. Buses will be on hand to transport them to their new, temporary schools, where their regular teachers and even school secretaries and other workers will greet them.
Kindergarten and first-graders will go to Ridgecrest Elementary, 1800 E. 7200 South; second-graders are going to Peruvian Park Elementary, 1545 E. 8425 South; third- and fourth-graders will head to Mountview Elementary, 1651 E. 7000 South; and fifth- and sixth-graders to Mount Jordan Middle School, 9360 S. 300 East.
The Head Start program will set up at Copperview Elementary, 8449 S. 150 West, and the Jordan Student Intervention Team (JSIT) will go to Silver Mesa Elementary, 8290 S. 1700 East.
Also, Sandy Elementary's breakfast program will relocate at the Sandy Boys and Girls Club at former Sandy City Hall just east of the fire-damaged school. Breakfast will be served between 8 and 8:30 a.m.
Gomez will have his office at Mount Jordan. Teachers at other schools will have two-way radios to keep everyone in touch.
It's uncertain when the students will be able to return to their home school.
Updated information on the school is available at www.jordandistrict.org.
Contributing: Pat Reavy
E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com