Students from Peck Place in Orange started at a new school at a converted office building on Yale’s West Campus on Wednesday.
The students were displaced after their elementary school took on significant damage when a pipe burst earlier this month. Due to asbestos and the time it will take crews to clean up, they will not be allowed back in for the remainder of the school year.
For the first few weeks, students were split up among other elementary schools as officials worked to find a better solution.
Yale’s West Campus happened to have an unused office building that was once home to the company Bayer.
Administrators and architects worked to convert the building once made up of cubicles into classrooms.
“We had to create a cafeteria where there wasn’t one,” Principal Eric Carbone said. “We developed indoor recess areas and a gym where at least children can move and have some physical fitness.”
The temporary school is an open air environment, with partitions dividing the classrooms. School officials have tried their best to offer everything they used to have at Peck Place, but there are a few limitations.
Students will only be able to get cold lunch because there is no set kitchen. They will also have to arrive to the bus stop 10 minutes earlier due to the travel time it takes to get to Yale.
Other than Peck Place, the campus only houses Yale's School of Nursing.
Yale officials do have plans to use the office building once Peck Place is done, but because it was vacant, they are only charging them for the utilities.
They hope to be back at Peck Place by the start of the next school year.
