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Class Resumes Tomorrow for Charter High School Destroyed by Fire

KWGS News File Photo

At All Souls Unitarian Church, where the community of the Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences gathered this morning after news that a fire had devastated the school building, cheers went up when principal Liesa Smith announced that students would not have to enroll at other high schools.

“TSAS will not be dismantled,” she told students. “You will not be sent off to other schools.”

That word comes despite the school’s new building, the former Barnard Elementary School at 17th and Lewis, going up in explosive flames early this morning.

The fire began prior to the arrival of any staff or students, though at least eight firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.

Class is not cancelled for long, however. Tulsa Public Schools has made the former Sequoya Elementary building, at 3441 E. Archer Street, available for TSAS to use temporarily.

Session will resume tomorrow morning, though with a late start. Classes will begin at 9 instead of 8 a.m.

TPS Superintendent Dr. Keith Ballard says the building is currently being cleaned.

“We are doing everything in our power to ensure that TSAS students have a comfortable home at the former Sequoyah building,” he said in a news release.

“We are trying to create as much normalcy as possible,” Smith said. “I think having some place for students to go and for teachers to be with the students is the most important thing.”