Don Davidson, facility manager at the Elmhurst Elementary School, talks about the large crack in one wall at the school.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PORTSMOUTH — The rows of cinderblock don’t quite meet in the wall between the two little rooms.

In the floor of one room, there’s a long-ago hole from a jackhammer where someone tried to find out the cause of uneven settling — also evidenced by a jog in the concrete floor.

But these details are just fragments of the big picture at the Elmhurst Elementary School, on the western bank of the Sakonnet River, where a consulting engineer has concluded that no one is in any danger.

The School Committee’s facilities subcommittee hosted a public tour of the school yesterday afternoon in response to a recommendation from a recently released efficiency audit that called for an immediate inspection from an engineer.

The preliminary inspection, conducted last week, concluded that there is no need to shore up the building in the short term, according to Schools Supt. Susan F. Lusi.

What the School Committee decides to do with the school in the long run is another matter entirely, she said.

Lusi shared the conclusions of the preliminary engineering report by Odeh Engineers Inc., of North Providence, which focused on the “structural distress” of a low-lying wing on the southeast side of the school. The town bought the Elmhurst school in 1973.

The ground level of the southeast wing remains locked — with the exception of the guided tour conducted yesterday — and is used only for storage, said Lusi and Don Davidson, the district’s facilities manager.

Odeh Engineers said that the foundation walls and load-bearing walls supporting the second floor of the southeast wing appear to be in “good structural condition” and can continue to be used by the regional special education officials.

Other ground-floor areas of the Elmhurst School can continue to be used. There, only “minimal settlements of the concrete floor slab have occurred,” according to the engineers.

“Odeh Engineers did not observe any evidence of settlement or significant structural distress in the concrete foundations or the load-bearing masonry block walls that support the superstructure of the building,” according to the report

Berkshire Advisors, the management consultants who conducted the performance review, advised the school district to develop both short-term and long-range plans for all its facilities.

Despite the structural issues at the Elmhurst School, yesterday’s tour showed a building with a great deal of charm.

The cafeteria, originally the chapel for the Catholic girls’ boarding school, has a stained glass window.

The music room, large enough for chorus rehearsals, has a wall of windows that affords a water view. Light also streams through the spacious art room, one floor below.

However beautiful, the windows are not energy efficient, according to Berkshire Advisors. The school also needs new boilers.

And the consultants warned that the building cannot meet regulations governing the fire code or handicapped accessibility without enormous expense that would involve gutting the interior.

Berkshire suggested that the district consider replacing the school.

gmacris@projo.com