Students at Richmond’s Cardinal Elementary School returned to school Tuesday after lightning struck the building last week, causing a fire and water damage that shut the school down for four days.
Over a dozen classrooms at the Southside school were impacted, and these students will be learning in several different multipurpose spaces across the building for the next few weeks.
RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras posted a photo to social media that showed students learning in the school’s gym, where several classes will be learning temporarily. Danielle Greene-Bell, chief engagement officer for the district, said only a handful of classes are meeting in the gym; other spaces designed for collaboration among classrooms are being utilized for the remainder of the impacted classes.
“The teachers are leaning on one another, sharing resources,” Greene-Bell said. “There may be a little co-teaching here and there.”
The school has one such collaborative space for each grade level, but Greene-Bell said not all of them can be utilized “because some of them are in that area where you see a little bit of damage. But it does create more flexibility with learning.”
She said the decision was made to return in-person this week — instead of meeting virtually while repairs are made — to ensure students have a sense of normalcy and to help get them in the routine of coming to school, which she said helps with attendance and relationship-building.
“Shifting to virtual learning would have required us to put additional stress on families to find caregivers that would be able to stay at home with their students for the day,” Greene-Bell said. “So, we really sat down and thought about it: Will our students be safe?’ And then: How can we ensure the continued emotional, social, well-being of the students, and make this as least disruptive as possible?”
Greene-Bell said district officials expect students will be back in their own classrooms two weeks from today. She said the scope of the damage and the cost of repairs is still being assessed — but added that insurance will cover the costs.
Another post from Kamras on Labor Day stated that the school’s roof was “100% repaired.” Kamras wrote on the social media platform X “that was, well, lightning fast.”
The Richmond Fire Department responded to a two-alarm fire at Cardinal just before 7 p.m. Aug. 26 — at the beginning of the second week of school. There were no injuries, and the fire was contained.
In a press conference last week, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said a school custodian pulled the fire alarm.
Stoney added that he personally spoke to the employee.
“He listened to his training and then pulled the alarm,” Stoney said. “Luckily, that, I think, helped reduce the amount of damage that occurred within the school.”
According to Greene-Bell, the custodians in the building that evening smelled smoke and one pulled the fire alarm before it was triggered by smoke. She said the alarms were working.
There were no fire code violations for Cardinal elementary in 2020, 2021 or 2022, according to reports VPM News previously obtained from the Richmond Fire Department. VPM News requested copies of the school’s 2023 and 2024 fire inspection reports — as well as copies of the reports showing testing of the school’s alarms — from the district Tuesday.
Over the last decade, multiple schools across the district have been repeatedly cited by RFD for not maintaining documentation showing routine testing of fire and smoke alarms had been completed. Experts said these tests — and keeping documentation of them — are vital to ensure all alarms are in working order.
Cardinal — whichopened in 2020 — is one of the district’s newest schools.
