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More than 600 students were displaced this week as they were either forced to stay home from school or sent to another care facility, due to a Sunday morning fire that left Lulu M. Ross Elementary School in Milford uninhabitable and severely damaged.
The southern Delaware school will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
State, local and school district officials toured the school’s damaged campus Tuesday afternoon while the scent of soot and ash still filled the air.
Despite seeing a collapsed roof and “complete devastation” left in the fire’s wake, Delaware’s Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said she began to picture the school’s hallways before a press conference took place. She said she imagined children walking through the door, with the school decorated for Halloween.
“The pictures in my head were all of the physical spaces, but then I held in my heart the learning and the relationships between the teachers and the students and the principal, who has such a heart,” Marten said. “Love is in the details, and the physical structure is burned in a horrifically devastating way, but the heart of the school is untouched.”
At the presser at Lulu Ross, Gov. Matt Meyer said that the state “will spare no cost” and is working to do as much as possible to help the school’s community.
“We recognize that there are kids who come to Lulu Ross every day … this is their only source of stability,” he said. “This may be their only source of food, and we’re working very hard.”
Kimberly Webb, the school’s principal, thanked the community in Milford and throughout Delaware for the support the school has received. She said the past week has been heartbreaking and challenging for the school, but that the collective Ross family’s “hearts are incredibly full.”
“Ross has never been defined by the walls of our building,” Webb said. “Ross has been defined by the people who fill those walls with love. It is our extraordinary staff who show up every day and pour their hearts into our children. It is our students, whose smiles, laughter and joy, make Ross, Ross.”
A fire alarm at the school went off around 4:15 a.m. on Sunday. Crews, including the Carlisle and Georgetown fire companies, responded to the call, finding fire coming from the roof of the school. It took responders about three hours to put it out.
When Milford School District Superintendent Travis Moorman saw the school on fire early that morning, he said it was “very distressing.”
“All you can think about is, ‘What are we going to do with our kids? How is this going to impact our kids? How is this going to impact our teachers and our staff and those individuals that show up every day and put every ounce of effort and heart into what’s best for kids?’” Moorman said.
Crews responded to another fire at the school Monday morning, according to the Carlisle Fire Company’s logs.
The fire severely damaged the school’s library, main lobby, front offices and several classrooms, according to Milford School District officials.
Lulu M. Ross Elementary School opened in 1957 and was named after a teacher who taught in the Milford School District for 50 years. State Rep. Bryan Shupe, R-Milford, attended the school as a student.
“God refines us through fire,” Shupe said during Tuesday’s press conference. “In this case, a literal fire that happened to our school, that is going to strengthen our community.”
U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, as well as U.S. Sens. Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, have all made statements expressing sympathy toward the school community.
The district announced Sunday afternoon that there would be no school for Lulu Ross students through Friday, and no in-person or remote instruction. Moorman said at the press conference that students’ laptops were inside the building when the fire happened.
“Remote learning is one of the things that you think about in trying to continue to engage with our students when you put them out of school for five days, but that was not feasible for us in this particular circumstance,” Moorman said.
Mispillion Elementary School, which is located on the same campus as Lulu Ross, was also closed Monday out of caution. Though Mispillion was not physically damaged, the two schools’ shared resources were affected, including the internet and phone lines. Mispillion students returned to class Tuesday after fiber-optic connectivity was repaired.
Lulu Ross also was planned to serve as a polling location for the upcoming midterm election. The state’s Department of Elections announced that the polling place would be relocated to Mispillion instead.
The Delaware State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire. Officials said there is currently no evidence of criminal activity, and that no injuries were reported.
Milford City Council passed a resolution to waive permit fees for potentially rebuilding the school at their meeting this week. At this time, there is no cost estimate for repairs. Moorman said assessments for the building will start soon.
“The state is working with us to try to make that determination and assessment of what the damage costs will be, the costs of mitigation, of any chemicals or any asbestos that might be in the building, and then looking at whether or not the building will be renovated or completely rebuilt,” he said. “All of those decisions are still further down the road at this point.”
The district has a general fund that collects revenue through taxes, which Moorman said would be committed to the project if required. But he said he hopes that with help from the Department of Education, “local funding may not have to be used in this sense.”
Gov. Meyer said the state is prepared to provide additional financial assistance if repairs to schools cost more than local resources can handle.
