Classes at Selwyn College Preparatory School are expected to resume Monday after a fire destroyed its main building.
"There won't be any loss of delivery of curriculum or … after care, food service," Selwyn board chairman David Biles said Friday.
Additional space on the campus will be used for kindergarten through fifth-grade classes and administrative staff until portable buildings arrive within the next week, and contingencies are being made to deliver food, he said.
The private school was closed Thursday and Friday while firefighters worked to extinguish and then investigate the fire that started early Thursday. DRC/David Minton A Denton firefighter surveys damage as he walks through the still-smoldering debris Friday at Selwyn College Preparatory School. View larger More photos Photo store
The blaze destroyed the main campus building - a 50-year old U-shaped structure that housed administrative offices, the kitchen, the drama department, art rooms, science and computer labs, and kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms.
The rest of the campus was spared, Biles said.
Denton Fire Marshal Rick Jones said Friday that progress has been made in the investigation but no official cause of the fire has been determined.
"We have narrowed the area of fire origin to two classrooms," he said. "And we are coming back [today]."
Fire investigators from the city and county fire marshals' offices are working to find exactly where the fire started so they can look for clues about the ignition source, Jones said. He said lightning, faulty wiring or arson had not been ruled out and there are no indications so far the blaze was started by a "suspicious cause."
The Denton school district said Friday it would move six portable classroom buildings early next week to Selwyn's campus on U.S. Highway 380.
The district is making available two portable buildings each from Ginnings, Houston and Rivera elementary schools, along with some desks and chairs, spokeswoman Sharon Cox said.
Denton school officials were relocating some programs that used the portable buildings, but Cox said the impact on operations would be minimal.
Dallas-based Balfour Beatty Construction, which built most of the district's schools in the past decade, is donating labor to build decks and ramps once the portable buildings are set up at Selwyn, Cox said.
Selwyn school officials said they plan to use the portable buildings for kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms and administrative offices.
Biles said there was an immediate outpouring of support from the community.
A local hotel offered one of its meeting rooms for teachers to prepare their curriculum for Monday, and he said school officials have received e-mails and phone calls from people expressing their concerns and asking how they could help.
Biles said one man parked his car off U.S. 380 Friday, walked up to the school's finance director and handed him an envelope containing a check for $500.
Biles said it's evident the school has a special place in people's hearts. DRC/David Minton U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a member of Selwyn's first graduating class in 1968, surveys the damage at the school on Friday. View larger More photos Photo store
One individual who holds the school near and dear is U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, who viewed the damaged main building with school officials Friday.
Burgess, who was a member of Selwyn's first graduating class in 1968, said he had to come and see the damage for himself.
"It's obviously really bittersweet," Burgess said. "It's bringing back a lot of the memories, but it's tough to look at the damage."
He said he plans to contribute anything asked of him to fundraising efforts.
Those efforts are already under way, said Mellina Stucky, the school communications director. A rebuilding fund has been set up at Northstar Bank and online donations will soon be accepted at www.selwynschool.com, she said. Plans for fundraising events are being discussed, she said.
The school is looking at several million dollars in damages, and the best way for people to support the campus now is financially, Biles said, so that school officials can begin to replace textbooks and other school supplies.
For more than three years, the school board has worked on growth plans for replacing each facility on the campus in phases, Biles said. Such planning gives the school a "leg up" as it works to replace the main building.
He said he anticipates students and staff will occupy a new building within a year.
Though the main building is a complete loss, Biles said there is a silver lining to Thursday's fire.
"It gives us a new objective for growth," he said. "It's an opportunity to come back with an even better facility."
Staff writers Donna Fielder and Lowell Brown contributed to this report.
BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.
HOW TO HELP
To contribute to Selwyn College Preparatory School's rebuilding fund, make a deposit into the "Selwyn Growth Fund" at Northstar Bank, e-mail finance director Clarke Stephan at cstephan@selwynschool.com or call 940-435-8502.
