GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A number of students from Grand Rapids Public Schools are attending classes virtually this week after a construction crew found structural issues in a wall.
Grand Rapids Public Schools says they switched to virtual classes out of precaution.
GRPS granted FOX17 inside access to innovation Central High School & Grand Rapids Montessori Middle High School, which share a building.
Currently, red tape with the word "danger" marks the closed-off area inside the building's auditorium, where crews uncovered the structural issue while doing renovations.
Contractors say they were concerned with the structural integrity of a wall in the auditorium because of "potentially compromising deterioration."
"So the integrity of those beams have some rust in it, that will cause a structural engineer to be concerned. So again, out of an abundance of caution, what we want to do is dig deeper into that problem," GRPS Chief of Staff Larry Johnson told FOX17.
Johnson added they've put about $40 million into the renovations.
"Walls, windows, bathrooms, lighting, heating, ventilation, and cooling. So a significant investment in this building," he said.
Now, they have to develop a different plan to address this newly discovered structural problem.
"We do not believe there's any risk of this wall coming down. But again, we need to manually take it down at some point to rebuild it," Johnson said.
However, the district now has to calculate the cost of this fix.
"It will be probably five to six figure low, you know, six figure, but we really don't know. We will be right now speculating," GRPS Executive Director of Facilities and Operations Alex Smart said.
The district hopes to have an accurate figure sometime next week, but student safety and learning are still the top priorities.
"So we wanted to work with all the experts to ensure us that we can have a safe environment. At the same time, an educational environment where our students can still learn are free of any disruptions," Johnson said.
Johnson says crews should be able to work on the problem while the nearly 700 students attend classes.
"We are confident it can be built without the interruption of student learning," Johnson said.
GRPS says they plan to have students back to school on Monday.
The district says this closure does not impact Grand Rapids Montessori Academy, which is located in a separate building.
