Robbinsville – Some three months after the discovery of a potentially hazardous situation, Graham County School officials remain baffled.
Shortly after the conclusion of the 2020-21 middle school basketball season – which hosts games inside the Robbinsville Elementary School gymnasium – a physical education teacher prepared to set up a volleyball net before a late-February class. But after opening the slot in the floor to place a supporting pole, something troubling greeted the instructor: the hole that normally holds the pole had shifted. Enough, in fact, that the pole had no chance of being placed.
A quick check on the other side of the gym floor yielded the same reveal. Soon after, school officials moved all physical education classes to what is known as the Old Rock Gym – which sits on the other side of the campus – after the northern, exterior foundation began showing signs of buckling. The southern exterior has since began exhibiting the same symptoms.
One glaring question remains: What is the cause?
Several methods to reach the root of the issue were tossed around when Graham County Schools Superintendent Angie Knight and assistant superintendent Robert Moody met with flooring and structural workers Friday. Moisture seemed to be the prevailing culprit, but Moody said Tuesday that after a 2-day stint with dehumidifiers from ServPro in the gym, only five gallons of water had been absorbed.
One corner of the building houses A Kid’s Place, a preschool for students between the ages of 3-5. So far, the structural issues have only been limited to the gymnasium and its surrounding exterior walls, but Knight was quick to point out that safety always comes first.
“I want to make sure that if we need to, we can find somewhere to place those students,” Knight said.
A quick estimate of replacing the entire floor – around 9,000 square feet – was around $125,000. In the interim, bleachers are being unbolted from the floor and slits are being cut to relieve pressure on the exterior walls.
The gymnasium was built in 1967 and remodeled in 2015.
“What gets me is how sudden this has happened,” Moody said.