Quake concerns prompt Ateneo to reset classes of Grades 3 to 8

Ateneo de Manila University president Jose Ramon Villarin has postponed the opening of classes for Grades 3 to 8 students on the school’s Quezon City campus to give way to the retrofitting of school buildings located near the West Valley Fault.

In a memo issued on Thursday, Villarin said classes for Grades 3 to 6 would start on Aug. 3 instead of June 8 while those for Grades 7 and 8 would open on June 15 instead of June 9. According to him, three buildings in the grade school complex would undergo retrofitting—David Hall, Fermin Hall and Pacquing Hall— to ensure their structural integrity as advised by experts during a structural audit and geological testing of buildings closest to the fault line done from March 2014 to May this year.

“Following these recommendations and the recent pronouncements by the Department of Education on the West Valley Fault, we will commence soonest the retrofitting process of these buildings to ensure their structural integrity. The occupants of these buildings shall be temporarily relocated to various areas on campus, and provided with pre-fabricated modular air-conditioned classrooms as needed, while retrofitting the buildings is being done. Some offices will [also] be temporarily relocated,” Villarin said.