BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Students will return to school Wednesday after the City of Bethlehem engineers gave William Penn Elementary School the all-clear Tuesday following the collapse of a wall on an exterior stairwell at the start of the week.
Bethlehem Area School District and city officials inspected the exterior structures and gave approval for the building to resume classes. The school has been closed for the past two days after police and fire responded to a collapsed wall in the stairway early Monday morning before school. There were no injuries.
- William Penn Elementary School will resume classes Wednesday
- Outside stairways will remain closed
- State PSSA testing will start Wednesday for 3rd-5th graders
District spokeswoman Barbara Clymer said outside stairways will remain closed. All students are to report to the playground to meet their teachers for morning entry into the classrooms.
Students in third, fourth and fifth grades will begin state testing for the PSSAs upon their return.
The building was constructed in 1972 and is one of the smallest of the 16 elementary schools in the district. In January, it was named as one of three buildings the district planned to tear down.
The others, Thomas Jefferson and Fountain Hill elementary schools, have deteriorated so much that renovating them doesn’t make financial sense, BASD Superintendent Joe Roy said at the time.
Thomas Jefferson, which is also built as open-concept was also scheduled to be checked for any exterior stairway structural issues this week. Officials had not yet released an update on those results as of Tuesday afternoon.
