The assessment will be through but expedited, according to state Treasurer Steven Grossman.
Katherine Craven, executive director of the Massachusetts School Building Authority, inspects damage caused by last week's tornado in Springfield. Here she is looking a sections of the roof of the Mary Dryden School on Surrey Road that landed across the street at Cathedral High School.SPRINGFIELD – State officials, traveling through the region on Wednesday to assess the significant tornado damage at public school buildings, said the conditions that were seen were worse than they imagined.
Top officials from the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and various other state and local officials and state structural engineers stopped at various sites including the Elias Brookings School on Hancock Street and the Mary Dryden School on Surrey Road, both heavily damaged.
The authority provides state funding for school construction and renovation projects.
State Treasurer Steven Grossman, chairman of the authority, and Katherine Craven, the authority’s executive director, pledged a thorough but speedy assessment of all damages to public schools. The state will do everything in its power to help repair, renovate or replace those schools, they said.
At Dryden, a large section of a new energy-efficient roof, just funded last year by the state authority, was hurled in a heap across the street.
“No one can believe the scope of the damage,” Craven said. “It’s absolutely devastating to look at the damage the tornado has caused.”
“It is more significant than I expected,” Grossman said. “We are here for the people of Springfield. We are here for the people of the Pioneer Valley. the devastation is clear and it has to be dealt with.”
Both schools closed for the year due to the damage, and were moved to other schools.
The authority’s Board of Directors was also on the tour, driven from site to site by a Peter Pan bus. The board moved its regular meeting to Westfield State University, and then planned a tour of Munger Hill School in Westfield.
Superintendent of Schools Alan J. Ingram and some members of the School Committee, City Council, and local legislators also took part in the tour.
The state authority, since formed in 2004, has made $7.6 billion in reimbursementsa to school districts for school construction projects.
Grossman said the state officials wanted to get a first-hand look at the damage, and will be partners in ensuring those students continue to have a quality education.