CASTLEWOOD, Virginia (WJHL)– Castlewood High School had to temporarily close its gymnasium in January because of structural damage to the outside wall. Tim Lovelace, the director of maintenance for Russell County Public Schools, said crews are working to fix the issue.
“The area of concern is actually the piece of wall that extends above the roof line, we noticed it had cracked and was leaning slightly over the roof,” Lovelace said. “We brought in a structural engineer and then immediately closed down the gymnasium, and we got a contractor to begin work right away on it.”
The Castlewood gymnasium was built in 1994, but the school building itself was built in 1948. Although the building is old, they have not had to do many repairs.
“We really haven’t had to do a lot here,” Lovelace said. “There are issues that come just with age, and we try to take care of those as we find them. This one was just a little bit unexpected.”
Principal Jarrod Sparks said that the damage to the building has not raised any concerns from parents about student safety.
“Honestly, I’ve had no concerns brought to me here at school personally about the structure at all,” said Sparks.
School officials said they are always keeping an eye out for damages or safety issues that need to be fixed.
“You know we do routine maintenance, Mr. Lovelace and his maintenance department are great,” said Sparks. “They’re constantly inspecting our buildings, doing anything that they see and they usually correct it immediately.”
Sparks said that they do have renovations scheduled to update and fix all the restrooms at the school. He said they hope to have that done by the start of next school year.
“We just take it as it comes, when things get damaged or in disrepair, we try to replace those immediately or update and renovate them as they come.”
