The front of William Penn school (file photo)
A fire-damaged portion of the long vacant and blighted William Penn school building is set to be demolished.
According to the Harrisburg School District, the city issued an emergency declaration on Wednesday to raze a portion of the building, which was heavily damaged by fire on Monday morning.
The Harrisburg Police Bureau has confirmed that the fire was arson, district officials said.
Demolition will focus on the portion of the building that formerly housed the automotive and welding instructional programs when the school was open. The state Department of Environment Protection (DEP) is involved in monitoring and regulating the demolition process.
In addition, the district will immediately move forward with cleaning out the entire school, including asbestos and lead abatement, and removing environmentally hazardous materials. According to fire Chief Brian Enterline, the sprawling building contains “thousands of tons” of debris, even though the school has not been in use for a dozen years.
For weeks, the William Penn task force has been meeting to help determine the future of the building. District Receiver Dr. Lori Suski originally approved the demolition of the building in June, but halted it soon after, stating that she wanted to give the community a chance to weigh in on the decision.
The task force was appointed in September and is slated to make a formal recommendation for the future use of the property to Suski on Jan. 18. At a Dec. 7, meeting, the group recommended against demolishing the entire structure and is examining ways to renovate and repurpose the building.
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