CCSD Schools and Seismic Safety

PRESS RELEASE
February 11, 2022

 

CCSD Schools and Seismic Safety
District’s Response to Utah K-12 Public Schools Unreinforced Masonry Inventory

 

On March 18, 2020, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Magna, Utah. It had an impact on buildings across the Salt Lake Valley. In response to that event and the possibility of future events, the Utah Department of Emergency Management released a report on February 10th that provides an inventory of public schools across the state which are constructed with unreinforced masonry (URM). The goal of this inventory is to raise public awareness of structures that may need attention.

 

The Cache County School District considers the physical safety of our students and staff inside our school buildings to be extremely important. We have made great strides over the past fifteen years to address seismic concerns in our school buildings and have appreciated the support of our community in those efforts. The following is a list of seismic issues we have addressed since 2006:

 

  1. Demolition of the two-story buildings at South Cache and North Cache formerly known as South Cache High School and North Cache High School. 
  2. Demolition of Lewiston Elementary and the construction of a new elementary school.
  3. Demolition of Wellsville Elementary and relocation of the elementary school to the Willow Valley Middle School building, now known as Wellsville Elementary.   
  4. Demolition of two-story portions of Summit Elementary and the addition of two new classroom wings and a gym.
  5. Demolition of two-story portions of Millville Elementary and the addition of new classrooms and a gym.
  6. Demolition of portions of Providence Elementary and the addition of new classrooms and a gym.
  7. Moved out of Park Elementary and relocated to White Pine Middle School, now known as White Pine Elementary.
  8. Moved out of River Heights Testing Center and relocated to new buildings at Sky View High School.

 

We have several buildings identified on this new report that may need further attention. They include:

 

  1. Providence Elementary - 1957 portions of the building
  2. Lincoln Elementary 1960’s portions of this building
  3. Sky View High School - 1963 portions of the building  
  4. North Park Elementary 1965 portions of this building
  5. North Cache Middle School 1968 portions of the building 
  6. Summit Elementary - 1976 portions of this building
  7. Millville Elementary - The oldest portions of this building were demolished and replaced. Need to determine why it is still on the list.

 

As noted in the report, the Division of Emergency Management stated: “Just because a school is on the list, does not mean it is at an imminent risk.“  As a school district, we plan to reevaluate each of these buildings to verify the findings of the State and to determine what, if any action needs to be taken.

CCSD Press Release for Seismic Safety and our Schools