Displaced Ateneo classes on double shift due to building repairs

MANILA, Philippines–Ateneo de Manila University Grade School students from Grades 3 to 6 will “share” classrooms and go on half-day shifts for the first two weeks of school while the three buildings in the campus nearest the West Valley Fault are being repaired.

A memorandum released on Monday by AGS headmaster Jose Antonio Salvador stated that from August 3 to 14, all Grades 3 to 6 classes will be held at the Fermin Hall.  “This means that the students will share the building by means of an AM class for grades 3 and 4, and a PM class for grades 5 and 6,” the memorandum read.

“Unlike any other school year, we are faced with the retrofitting works of Pacquing and Fermin Hall. While the outlook for a timely completion is positive, we choose to take a conservative stance and anticipate the continued retrofitting works at Pacquing Hall,” Salvador explained in the memorandum.

Earlier, the opening of classes for the grade levels was deferred from June to August due to the retrofitting of three buildings at the Ateneo Grade school complex: the David Hall, Fermin Hall and Pacquing Hall.

The retrofitting followed a structural audit and geological testing of buildings in the campus closest to the West Valley Fault, done March 2014 to May 2015, which called for building pillars to adhere to the standards of the 2010 National Structural Code of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, following the decommissioning of the David Hall, the Ateneo Junior High School, which includes Grades 7 and 8 students, has been housed at the Bellarmine Hall in the Loyola Schools campus, and has also been holding double shift classes, with Grade 7 on the morning shift, and Grade 8 on the afternoon shift.

Single-shift classes will resume when the construction of pre-fabricated modular classrooms in the high school complex are completed to house one of the grade levels.