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A wing of the Franklin Preschool, which burned in a suspected arson last month, will need to be demolished, said Lew Jones, director of facilities for the Berkeley Unified School District. 

The fire gutted two of the school’s five classrooms, but nearly all of the approximately 125 students were back at the school within a week, filling up the three remaining classrooms and a portable classroom that was pressed into service. 

The preschool is not located at the same site as the Franklin Elementary School. 

Jones said he was working with a hazardous materials specialist to make sure that demolishing the building would not release harmful chemicals into the air, and that he hoped to have the ruins gone “sooner rather than later.” 

After meeting with the district’s insurers this week to begin discussions on determining the cost for a new wing to the school, Jones said any part of the replacement costs that exceed the insurance estimate would be covered by Measure AA, which earmarks money to pay for rehabilitating school buildings.  

Jones didn’t expect a new wing to be completed for a couple of years. 

District Spokesperson Mark Coplan said the federal Head Start program has loaned Franklin students paper, paint, pencils, chairs and tables to replace items lost in the fire, and Oakland-based Link to Children has offered counseling to comfort grieving students. 

Police are still investigating the fire, which was set Saturday, Sept. 13., when someone jumped the school fence and lit combustibles—possibly paper—outside the wooden north wing.