Medford School District officials say North Medford High School’s revered gymnasium will have to be demolished and rebuilt after the roof collapsed Tuesday.

The weight of accumulated snow atop the gym after last week’s heavy snowfall throughout Southern Oregon is considered a key factor in Tuesday’s catastrophic collapse, school officials have said. There were no injuries, and students were evacuated Tuesday and then spent Wednesday at home. Classes resumed Thursday, with deeper perimeter fencing installed around the heavily damaged gym to provide an extended safety buffer.

District staff and outside contractors are currently focused on demolition of the gym to stabilize the structure before a full engineering assessment can be safely conducted.

“The first step is securing the space, next is to do an assessment about what needs to be done next and then continuing to move forward from there,” Bret Champion, superintendent for the Medford School District, said at a Wednesday afternoon media briefing. “Right now, what we’re asking for is patience and grace as we work through this.”

After finishing demolition, district staff anticipate an engineering assessment to come in roughly a week or two with more details on the cause of the roof collapse, as well as necessary work to begin rebuilding the venerated gym, which opened in the mid-’60s.

“We hope to hit the ground running pretty soon with the demo work and, once we get that done and get a couple of walls down and get that gym space cleared out, our engineers will be able to get in there safely,” said Ron Havniear, district safety and security director.

“In the coming days — to include today — our engineers are going through the building and doing a rapid visual inspection of the structure and making sure there are no worries. A timeline is still being developed. … we hope to have some type of assessment done in the next one to two weeks.”

There is no cost estimate for the damage at this time.

According to the school district, multiple factors could’ve contributed to the collapse, but an estimated 700,000 pounds of snow accumulated on the roof after last week’s snowstorm, compromising the structure, Havniear said in interviews with local media outlets starting this past weekend. 

District officials said a more than $3 million seismic retrofit effort at the gym over the summer, which incorporated horizontal reinforcements on exterior walls, likely prevented the walls from collapsing with the roof.

Damage to the gym was first evident during a Friday, Feb. 7, sports practice after a crack appeared in a large wooden beam, causing students and staff to evacuate the building and for the district to fence off the gymnasium to prevent access.

Medford city, fire and engineering crews responded and helped remove snow buildup on the roof.

At 8:41 a.m. Tuesday morning, multiple beams broke loose, triggering alarms and prompting an emergency lockdown of the high school.

The gymnasium roof caved in at approximately 10:47 a.m. Tuesday.

A video taken by the school district can be accessed at facebook.com/reel/629932972848123.

Looking forward, district staff and contractors will continue demolition work and assess the structure over the coming weeks.

“Winter weather is still upon us, and so we are going to be paying attention to that as the year progresses,” Champion said.

Some North Medford High School students’ schedules, athletics activities and routines are being adjusted.

“It will change their flow and their path around campus, but in terms of buildings that are accessible, all the other buildings minus the gym area will be open,” Havniear said Wednesday.

Athletic activities such as basketball games will be played at Oakdale Middle School’s gymnasium for the foreseeable future. Physical education classes with be primarily moved outdoors, according to North Medford High School Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Pieter Voskes.

The roof collapse has received national coverage, with outlets such as CNN and Yahoo News covering the news. 

North Medford High School Principal Allen Barber reported receiving hundreds of phone calls from friends, peers and other school districts locally and across the country.

“I’ve been in education for 30 years, and this is a first,” Barber said Wednesday.

For more information on the collapse, visit the high school’s website at north.medford.k12.or.us/news/posts-details/~board/medford-school-district-news/post/north-medford-gym-roof-collapse-feb-11-2025-frequently-asked-questions.