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Six months have passed since an arson fire destroyed portions of Woodburn High School.

鈥淭he reconstruction process is moving right along,鈥� said Patricia Ramirez, director of human resources and operations for Woodburn School District.

However, the building has not received any work. A start date has not been set. A contractor for the project has not even been hired.

Dave Vancil, the vice chairman of the Woodburn School Board, said his best estimate is that work could begin in March or April 2013. However, he stressed that it is an estimate 鈥� and a fairly optimistic one.

鈥淲e didn’t initially have a public adjuster looking at the building, so when the insurance company came back with its first estimates in July or August, its figures seemed way off,鈥� Vancil said.

District officials brought in a public adjuster, an agent licensed by the state of Oregon to provide an independent assessment of damages in insurance claims involving public entities. The public adjuster discovered that the building needs an additional $300,000 of resealing as well as a number of other environmental and structural upgrades.

Vancil said board members are still digesting the 100-page report the public adjuster submitted to them last week.

鈥淚t’s a huge claim north of $8 million,鈥� he said. 鈥淛ust how far north, we do not know. It all boils down to the insurance issues.鈥�

Three teenagers were held responsible for the fire set on May 11, 2012. They were ordered last Aug. 27 to pay restitution, serve probation and write letters apologizing to the community for the damage (originally estimated at $6 million). The teenager who set the fire also served four days in jail.

The fire started when teenagers ignited hand sanitizer on a desktop in the computer room to mimic a prank they saw on YouTube. The fire spread quickly after the teenagers tried to put it out with paper towels.

More than 60 firefighters from Woodburn, Silverton, Aurora, Canby, Tualatin, Mount Angel, Salem, Marion County and other districts hours worked to get the fire under control, but parts of the building were left uninhabitable.

The teen who started the fire said at his sentencing in August, 鈥淚’m very sorry, and I wish none of this had ever happened.鈥�

The school’s 1,556 students were scattered to undamaged sections. District officials wanted to move students to modular units to make way for construction crews. That represents another delay in the construction project, Vancil said. The district’s insurance company did not want students to relocate to modulars.

Vancil said district officials won that argument; students will move into the modular classrooms next week.

District officials looked into possibly moving students into other buildings in the community, delaying the school year or moving to split shifts. In the end, they decided the best option was to use the space available and huddle students together in the school’s habitable portions.

The whole process has been irritating, school board member Jody Daniels said 鈥� not only for district officials and board members, but also for parents, students and the community as a whole.

鈥淚t’s been a struggle to decide what needs to be done in terms of mitigation,鈥� Daniels said. 鈥淚t’s been a frustrating process, but we might as well get it right.鈥�