Class is back on in Berens River First Nation.

Weeks after the community’s only school burned to the ground, kids are back learning, working out of several community spaces that have become makeshift classrooms.

Berens River School burned down early on Jan. 27. Faulty wiring in the building’s crawlspace has been identified as the cause. About 400 students, ranging from nursery and kindergarten to Grade 9, were left without a place to study.

Frontier School Division and the First Nation worked to find new classroom space. While some students were offered space at Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage, most wanted to stay in their home community.

Classes began again on Feb. 23, with some students in class for full days and others on alternating schedules. Frontier School Division superintendent Tyson MacGillivray said all students are back in class.

“Some are doing full days, and some are doing alternate days,” he said. “With eight spaces and 420 kids, some grade levels come in the morning, and some come in the afternoon.”

Space has been cleared at the Berens River band hall, adult education centre, community council building, a daycare and others locations.

“We have eight locations where we have provided supplies and new furniture and tables and books and libraries, everything as quick as we can get it into the school so there’s a level of normalcy for the kids,” MacGillivray said.

“That’s been really important, and we’ve had really good support from the community of Berens River and the First Nation around getting these spaces up to school standards.”

Restarting the school year after the fire was not easy. The First Nation hosted a school supply drive to provide kids with everything they’d need to attend classes again. Frontier made orders for new supplies and textbooks, and for temporary classrooms.

The school supply drive ended March 5.

“Berens River would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to gather and donate school supplies for our students. From backpacks, pencil crayons, markers, duotangs and calculators to the many other essentials needed for the classroom, your generosity has made an incredible difference,” Berens River said in a statement.

“Thank you for reminding us of what it truly means to be good neighbours and compassionate human beings. Your kindness ensures that our students will move forward with hope, strength and the knowledge that they are supported by a community that truly cares.”

The division is looking to bring in temporary classrooms. Some are ready to be taken to Berens River.

“It’s been a little bit slower than we anticipated because we’ve had some hurdles around weight restrictions on the road as well as weight restrictions on the bridge,” MacGillivray said.

“We are planning to get some classrooms up and across the bridge and across the ice crossing into Berens River, hopefully within the next week. There are basically trucks idling in Ontario ready to take off at a moment’s notice to start bringing some of those buildings into the community.”

The medium-term plan is to bring in several temporary classrooms, put them in a cleared-off area and eventually put the temporary structures together in that space. MacGillivray said he hopes that plan will be ready by the time school starts next fall.

The long-term goal is to build a new school. The building that burned was already in need of replacement, MacGillivray said, and a feasibility study into replacing it had been in place for about a year before the fire.

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“Let’s make this the fastest school built in Manitoba history. That’s my goal, that we get a school up and running within hopefully 2 to 2 1/2 years,” MacGillivray said.

“I know that’s a very aggressive timeline, but I think everybody around the table understands the urgency to provide the students in the community of Berens River a high-quality education setting. We’re going to do everything we can with all of our partners to make sure that that’s in place sooner [rather] than later.”