San Francisco Charter School Struggles After 5-Alarm Fire

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Leaders of the charter school damaged by last week's five-alarm fire in San Francisco's Western Addition neighborhood are in desperate need of supplies, as they get set to reopen.

The Creative Arts Charter School on Turk Street, which serves 275 students from kindergarten to 8th grade, has had to delay renovations and some teachers are moving their classrooms in the wake of the fire on December 22.

KCBS' Ted Goldberg Reports:

San Francisco fire officials said the school sustained $50,000 in smoke and water damage. Paul Greenwood, the school's director, said six classrooms are unusable.

"Right now, we don't have a cafeteria. We don't have a multi-purpose room. We lost a lot of space," said Greenwood. "The impact is not only in the classrooms that were lost, but for the entire school."

Greenwood said teachers lost curriculum and the fire destroyed several computers.

Now, officials are asking for the public's help in replacing some of what was lost in the fire.

Renovations needed for the school to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act have been delayed. Creative Arts Charter School was originally scheduled to resume classes on Tuesday, but officials said they need more time to clean up and have delayed the start of classes until next Wednesday.

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