The Learning Vine in Queen Creek is cleaning up after a Monday night dust storm destroyed the microschool’s outdoor shade structure, leaving the campus without a covered patio area while more storms are expected.
Founder Reyannin Haggard said the school has faced recurring storm damage since relocating to its current site. The microschool has almost 70 children on campus four days per week, and Haggard described the model this way: "The way I explain it to parents most often is it's outsourced homeschooling."
The damaged shade area was not the school’s first attempt to cover outdoor space for students. Haggard said the school put up a pergola last spring over a concrete patio used for meals, art and lessons outdoors, but that structure later collapsed during a storm.
The school then hired a contractor for a larger front-campus shade structure, which Haggard said was intended to stretch across more of the property. That structure was damaged in a storm a few weeks ago, repaired, and then destroyed again during Monday night’s dust storm.
School officials said the latest damage includes concrete anchors that broke loose, bent metal posts and lights left hanging from the structure. Auriel Elmore, an art teacher and parent of two students, said she is worried the remaining damaged pieces could create safety issues near windows and classrooms.
