Fire & Life Safety

California school set to reopen after asbestos abatement

Hope View Elementary in Huntington Beach was closed for about a year while the cancer-causing chemical was removed from the campus.
Sept. 2, 2015

After being closed for nearly a year because of the presence of asbestos, Hope View School in Huntington Beach, Calif., will reopen next week.

Students, staff and community members took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Hope View Wednesday and toured the remodeled facility. Classes are set to resume Sept. 8.

The Ocean View School District shut down Hope View and two other campuses last year when cancer-causing asbestos was discovered during facility modernizations.

Students were moved to other schools, and the Hope View campus underwent a $5.2 million overhaul that included comprehensive asbestos, lead and mold abatement and reconstruction of the school’s main school structure.

Reconstruction work at the two other affected campuses has not been finished. The district says work at Oak View Elementary is scheduled to be completed in early 2016. In the meantime, students will attend classes in portable buildings on the school grounds.

Lake View Elementary will remain closed for 2015-16; students have been relocated to Westmont Elementary. after the campus w trace amounts of the cancer-causing product were found during a re-modernization project.

Video from NBC Los Angeles:

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Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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