No injuries, minor damage after lightning strikes school

The roof of Berryville Intermediate School was struck by lightning last week, causing minor damage and leading to a brief evacuation.

According to superintendent Owen Powell, most students were eating breakfast when lightning struck the roof of the fifth-grade area of the building around 8 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 28.

“We evacuated the students to the elementary school just for precautionary reasons,” Powell said. “It was a pretty minor event, honestly. We had one light that was blown out and created a little bit of a smell in the building, and that’s really the main reason for evacuating the students to the elementary school.”

The Berryville Fire Department responded and found the building safe after an inspection, Powell said.

“Students were back in the building within probably 30 minutes or so,” the superintendent said.

A post on the district’s Facebook page at 8:43 a.m. notified parents of the evacuation.

“We want to inform you that there has been a possible lightning strike at the Intermediate School,” the Facebook post read. “As a precaution, all students and staff have been safely relocated to the Elementary School while the Fire Department conducts a thorough inspection of the building.

“Please be assured that everyone is safe, and we are taking all necessary steps to ensure the continued safety and well-being of our students and staff. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”

A second post at 9:19 a.m. said the situation was resolved and students and staff were back in the building.

“The students’ safety was never an issue with any of the students or the faculty or anything,” Powell said. “We just for precautionary, had the fire department come in, inspect the building and once they said it was all good, then we got the students back in the building.”

Powell said a couple of people standing in the hallway near where the strike happened described a “flash and then a boom.”

“And then there was that smell of a burned-out light in the hallway,” he said. “That one light is the only thing we could find. The fire department was there and did an inspection, and then we had our our maintenance crew … they all got up on the roof and checked everything out so it was really somewhat of a non-event. We just did it for precaution.”

BOARD MEETING

Berryville’s school board met Monday, Aug. 25, and unanimously voted to make terms six years in length after a recent decision by the state Legislature.

“In the legislative session there was a new law that changes the length of school board member terms,” Powell said. “At Berryville, we had fiveyear terms, but the new law says you either have to go to four-year terms or sixyear terms. Our board decided to go to sixyear terms.

Also under the new law, school board elections will now only be held on even years so the next election will be held in 2026 and then not again until 2028.

The board also approved a new career coach position after the district was awarded a new grant, and also OK’d a new special education paraprofessional at the elementary school.

“Our numbers at the elementary school are pretty high, so we have to add a special education paraprofessional just due to the numbers,” Powell said.

The board approved an online program for ALE students.

YEAR STARTING WELL Powell said the school year is going as smoothly so far as any year he’s been involved with.

“It’s really been smooth,” he said. “[Friday, Aug. 30] we’re finishing Week 3, and outside of our little lightning incident, it’s gone really well.”

The Bell to Bell No Cell state law that went into effect this year and has been a hot topic across the state continues to not be an issue at Berryville, Powell said.

“I’ve talked to our high school principals about that to see how it’s going and it’s been very minimal,” Powell said. “Not to be a broken record, but we’ve actually been doing this for several years. It wasn’t a big change for us.

“I know probably a lot of schools out there that didn’t have that rule already, it probably is a big deal they’re having to deal with, but it’s a nonevent for us really.”