Naperville school still on target to reopen Monday

Naperville's Scott Elementary School is scheduled to reopen Monday in the wake of a Friday fire that forced the evacuation of the building at 500 Warwick Drive.

No one was injured in the fire, which began in a boys restroom and forced students and faculty to spend the better part of their school day at Madison Junior High.

Cleaning crews from J.C. Restoration began working to clean up the damage on Friday night and were expected to finish today. Naperville Unit District 203 officials said 40 to 50 workers are involved in the project.

Steve Mathis, director of buildings and grounds for the district, said the only fire damage was to a toilet paper dispenser and a stall partition in the boys washroom.

There was smoke damage throughout the building, however, with "lots of black soot everywhere," he wrote in an e-mail to district officials.

Hygieneering Inc., an environmental consulting firm, was called to help oversee the restoration work. Mathis said the company took air samples Friday night and determined the environment was safe.

Crews removed damaged ceiling tiles and installed temporary air-cleaning machines with charcoal filters throughout the building, officials said.

Students were not allowed to take their coats or backpacks during Friday's evacuation and those items are being tagged and placed in boxes for cleaning.

The fire was reported about 9:50 a.m. Friday. Damage estimates were not available.

District officials said they will continue to keep parents informed of developments through Talk203 e-mail and the school's Web site, schools.naperville203.org/scott.