Snow collapses roof, hinders Mount Pleasant school
MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. - A Mount Pleasant school is switching back to virtual learning, and the reason has nothing to do with the coronavirus.
Sonnenberg School has been deemed unsafe after a roof collapsed under the weight of snow on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
From the outside, all looks normal at Sonnenberg School, but inside everything is covered in roof and soaked in water -- leaving dozens of kids without a place to go.
Ceiling tiles on the floor and wires dangling, pictures show only the parts of the building that members of the Great Lakes Church were able to get to safely. The Sonnenberg School shares the building and is still waiting to see the full extent of the damage.
"Because no one can go in at this point and assess what is salvageable, what is not, what we can recover and what’s just gone, it’s a little bit of a guessing game," said Heather Wenthold-Bartsch, executive director and principal for Sonneberg Schools.
Snow collapses roof at Sonnenberg School in Mount Pleasant
Wenthold-Bartsch got a call Tuesday morning, learning all of the snow had become too much for the school's roof.
"The weight of the roof had actually collapsed, the beams in the roof structure causing everything to collapse down inside, so unfortunately that meant everything in that space has been destroyed. If not because of the weight, because of the water main pipe that broke when the roof fell in," Wenthold-Bartsch said.
Snow collapses roof at Sonnenberg School in Mount Pleasant
Assuming everything is gone, the school is working to get things back to normal -- something particularly important for the students with special needs they serve.
"Our children often struggle with transition, they struggle with change, they struggle with the unknown and unfortunately these circumstances are throwing all three barriers into their path," said Wenthold-Bartsch.
Sonnenberg School in Mount Pleasant
The school is using an Amazon registry to try to replace supplies, hoping to fill up a new space as soon as possible.
"To have to move them virtual now in the face of this catastrophic set of events, it’s setting them back a little bit," Wenthold-Bartsch said.
The school has also set up a PayPal account for people interested in making a monetary donation.
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