Students at McDonald Elementary School will attend classes at the school on Monday despite a fire that damaged part of the building this morning.
Hillsborough School officials said this afternoon that classes normally held in the damaged wing of the school will be held in the cafeteria and library while damage from the fire is cleaned up.
Principal Dave McMeen will notify parents of his school's 475 students by phone today about the new
arrangement.
This morning's pre-dawn fire created smoke damage in 15 of the school's 38 classrooms. The damaged classrooms are in the section of the school that serves kindergarten through second grade.
McDonald Elementary is at 501 W. Pruett Road in eastern Hillsborough County.
According to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, the slow-burning fire started in a kindergarten room.
The fire triggered an automated alarm at the school, McMeen said.
Fire crews responded to the fire at 6:30 a.m. It was extinguished by 8 a.m.
Word of the fire brought teachers, students and school staffers to the quiet stretch of Pruett Road where the school sits. They gathered outside the chain-link fence surrounding the property waiting to hear about damage and plans for Monday.
Fourth-grader Jason Kaelin, an aspiring firefighter, came to check out the action. His mother, Tracie Kaelin, teaches fifth grade at the school.
"I thought I would see some smoke," Jason said. "But they seem to have it under control."
The fire remains under investigation.
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