Engineers “strongly recommend” that the Ross River School be releveled this summer in a structural review of the school following two earthquakes on May 1.

The review, carried out by Williams Engineering, which has offices in the Yukon, reveals a number of structural issues with the building.

The school closed for four days following the quakes while the structural assessment was underway. The building was deemed safe for occupancy on May 5.

The structural review estimates the cost of releveling the school at $1.2 million.

Richard Mostyn, the minister of Highways and Public Works, told reporters today the Department of Education is confident they can relevel the school this summer, if the government decides to go that route.

The government has to gather more information, including geotechnical research, before making that call, he said.

Much of the Ross River community is situated atop permafrost that thaws in the warmer months and refreezes in the winter, wreaking havoc on infrastructure.

Permafrost is the primary factor contributing to the school’s continuing woes.

“The permafrost that the school was built on has led to a shifting foundation,” Mostyn said in the legislature on May 8.

He said a number of engineering strategies have been adopted to mitigate the resulting damage, but that “we are not entirely convinced that these measures are working as expected.”

The building has a thermosyphon system that is meant to cool the ground by pulling heat away from the school’s foundation and nearby soil.

Mostyn said he is skeptical about the engineers’ advice to “do what’s been done in the past and go forward.”

“I have to balance the needs of the community and the students and the staff in the school with the long-term needs of the territory and the finances, so I have to look at all the options and I haven’t got that information yet.”

Moving portables into the community is a possible option, said Mostyn.

“We need some sort of structure and then we have to find out whether we can pull together the finances to build a new school or if this one can be salvaged in some way. Can it be moved? I don’t have all the answers,” he said.

Mostyn added that many of the school’s structural issues predate the earthquakes.

“My understanding from my conversations with the department is that the earthquakes did not play a significant role in the damage to the building,” he said.

Structural problems have plagued the 16-year-old Ross River School since construction completed in 2001.

The building has undergone multiple repairs and renovations in its relatively short lifespan.

In 2015, the school was condemned due to extensive damage caused by the shifting foundation. It reopened five months later in September of that year.

Mostyn said it cost around $1.9 million to relevel the school in 2015.

About $3 million has been spent on various studies and repairs to the school since 2002, he said.

The “non-destructive” inspection, done on May 3, consisted of a walk through the building and an inspection of visible structures and finishes inside and outside.

Williams Engineering also conducted a level survey in the building’s crawl space, and took measurements to compare with previous reviews.

The structural review “identifies conditions that are indicators of structural distress and/or movement within the building,” reads the report.

It outlines a laundry list of cosmetic and architectural indicators that provide insight into the condition of the building’s underlying structure.

Floors in some classrooms slope downward from the hallway to exterior walls, and the walls in the mechanical room appear to be bulging. The mechanical room also has gaps in its roof trusses.

Also there is cracking in areas of drywall, exterior siding, and around windows and finishes.

Some doors are hard to open and close, and there is a gap between the walls in one corner of the gymnasium.

While the earthquakes gave the school a good shake – the principal noted how the library’s wood glulam framing rattled and creaked – the report says that some issues are similar to what were observed in inspections prior to the quakes.

In addition to releveling the school this summer, engineers recommended that load-bearing walls be strengthened and that the window header in the kindergarten classroom be taken apart and inspected.

They said another structural review should be done in July.

Between 70 and 80 people use the school, said Mostyn.

Chief Jack Caesar of the Ross River Dena Council could not be reached for comment today.

Engineers inspected the school on March 8, before the earthquakes, said Mostyn. Geotechnical and structural inspections are done twice a year.

The most recent revelations of structural problems at Ross River School come shortly after the community released a survey documenting the myriad ailments affecting homes in the community, from toxic mould, to faulty plumbing, to rot.

Councillor Derrick Redies of the Ross River Dena Council told the Star last week that the community’s housing is in dire straights, and thawing permafrost was cited as a major contributor to the crisis.

Heaving permafrost forces the community to relevel nearly all its homes on an almost yearly basis, at a significant cost to the housing budget.