In October 2017, St. Rose Catholic School in Santa Rosa, CA suffered two unimaginable back-to-back disasters. In addition to the firestorm that swept through Santa Rosa on the night of October 9, 2017, the water company mistakenly restored service to the campus in the following weeks. While still on mandatory evacuation, an estimated 5,000 gallons of water poured into various rooms on the empty campus before the mistake was realized.

Like other local schools that sustained damage, the St. Rose campus was shut down for months. Students split into smaller groups and attended various schools across Santa Rosa while extensive repairs were made. St. Rose has been in the community since 1931 serving students from preschool to eighth grade, so its temporary closing was felt throughout the city.

St. Rose Catholic School is only one of the seven area schools that burned or sustained significant damage in the fires. The fires also damaged six other neighboring schools, including Cardinal Newman High School, Roseland Collegiate Prep, Hidden Valley Elementary, Redwood Adventist Academy, Mark West Community Preschool, and The Anova Center School, in addition to an estimated 5,500 structures countywide.

As the local community continues forward with rebuilding the affected structures, we look toward the ways we can improve classrooms for future generations. The fires were devastating, but from that devastation comes an opportunity for growth and advancement. After the fires, we were contacted by St. Rose to analyze the smoke damage to the campus’ audiovisual systems. The damage was extensive, and we came to the conclusion that a complete replacement of parts was necessary, both from the fire damage and the subsequent water damage. This can be a crushing blow to an educational institution, but thankfully with the support of the community, St. Rose could move forward.

The scope of the St. Rose project included the installations of AV systems in nine classrooms, complete with Da-Lite IDEA screens, which are interactive dry erase boards that can be used for projection. We also installed Christie short throw laser projectors, interactive Extron touch controls, handheld wireless Shure microphone headsets, and TV tuners to broadcast campus announcements. Creating this plan and making sure the students and teachers both had access to technology that will help them continue to grow and learn was incredibly rewarding. We hope to continue aiding in rebuilding Santa Rosa and bringing updated audiovisual system integration to schools, event venues, businesses, and more throughout the area.

To learn more about the St. Rose Catholic School project, please visit the case study. We’d be happy to answer any questions you have.