Roof of brand-new school gym collapses days before grand opening

Days before the grand opening of a brand-new gym at the Albuquerque middle and high school campus of Explore Academy, the roof of the building collapsed, the school told its community this week.

Late Sunday night, one Explore Academy parent, who asked not to be identified, said they received a message from the school saying that “unfortunately, the roof to the new gym collapsed,” and that the whole facility was at risk because that gym was tied to the main building.

The next day, the parent said they visited Explore Academy in part to get a look at the damage. The roof of the new gym, the parent said, looked as if a mortar had gone through it.

“From what I saw, three-quarters of the occupants of that building would have been dead,” the parent said. “... That type of failure on a public project is scary, because there’s no way to protect your family from that.”

The charter school near Jefferson and Osuna NE, could not be reached for an interview Tuesday in time for publication.

The collapse came just days before a planned ribbon-cutting ceremony at the school, where officials planned to unveil the $7 million project that was nearly two years in the making, according to a news release.

AIC General Contractor, an Albuquerque-based company, was listed on that release. A call to AIC’s president was not immediately returned Tuesday.

According to an announcement made Monday by Explore Academy on social media, school officials were made aware of the collapse by the campus fire system.

The announcement reads that the damage “was isolated to the new gymnasium and did not appear to damage any of the surrounding new classrooms or the current building.”

The area had not yet been released to students and staff, the school added in the announcement, clarifying in a comment that “no classes or students would have used the building until we received final inspection and our official certificate of occupancy.”

That all being said, the school moved students to asynchronous learning — allowing students to complete lessons on their own — pending an inspection of the entire school building.

“Explore Academy takes the safety of our staff and students very seriously,” the school said. “... We anticipate staff and students to rejoin us by next week.”