LITTLE ROCK—Two Pulaski County elementary schools have been closed temporarily while school officials determine how to repair chemical damage done by fire retardants to the schools’ roofs.

Clinton Magnet Elementary School in Sherwood will be closed, beginning Monday, and students will resume classes Wednesday in a church in North Little Rock.

Crystal Hill Magnet Elementary near Maumelle also has been closed. Most students there will resume classes Monday in portable buildings at Maumelle Middle School. Others have been assigned to other locations.

“Our first priority is the safety of our students and to provide a secure environment in which our academic curriculum is not compromised,” said James Sharpe, superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District. “As for the rest of it, we’ll go day by day to get a handle on the repairs and the costs.”

Engineers, architects and contractors will assess and make repairs to wooden trusses that are deteriorating because of a flame retardant chemical applied when the schools were built.

School officials announced Nov. 7 that Crystal Hill would be closed and students reassigned to other locations. The school, built in 1992, has 710 students. Sharpe announced Friday that Clinton Magnet, the district’s largest elementary with 750 pupils, would be closed. School hours and bus schedules won’t change while students attend classes at First Assembly Church.

Sharpe said engineers who evaluated the Clinton roof last summer said in a phone conversation that the school was safe for occupancy. He wanted those assurances in writing from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. of Bingham Farms, Mich. But the firm declined to do that, and school officials decided then to close the school because of safety concerns and the prospect that the damage could be repaired at both schools at the same time.

Sherwood Fire Chief Frank Hill said that after reading the Sept. 23 inspection report from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, he believed the Clinton roof was no safer than the Crystal Hill roof. The inspectors wrote in that report that they found “fully fractured” trusses in both roofs and that they could not certify that the roofs were safe for snow or wind loads until repairs were made.

“I never want the kids to have to move,” Hill said. “It’s a disruption for the kids, the staff and the families. But if you read the report, there is an obvious safety factor there.”

Pyro-Guard was used at the Clinton school, built in 1994. Dricon was used at Crystal Hill. Pyro-Guard is considered less acidic and less sensitive to heat and moisture than Dricon. Also the design loads at the Clinton school have a higher safety factor than the structural loads at Crystal Hill.

The school district is not the first in the state to deal with chemically damaged trusses.

The Conway School District has dealt with the problem at Marguerite Vann Elementary and at Carl Stuart Middle School, Conway Assistant Superintendent Carroll Bishop said.

About 10 years ago, the Vann roof began to sag, prompting the relocation of students and staff to a church for about a year, Bishop said. The building was pretty much gutted to put in a metal roof and metal trusses. New floors also were needed.

More recently, the district was able to maintain the Carl Stuart roof by shoring up the weakened trusses with good lumber and frequent monitoring. When the roof shingles needed replacing, the district decided to proceed with replacing the faulty trusses.