BELLEVILLE, Ill. (KMOV) -- For the last 11 months, an elementary school in Belleville has been sinking.

Educators in the Belle Valley School District said they’ve had to sit by and watch Belle Valley North Elementary School plunge further into the ground. The building has dropped five inches, and has suffered massive damage as a result including several sizable cracks that slither up the walls.

(News 4 Extra: Facts about Illinois mine subsidence)

In the last few months, the constant shifting of the buildings have gotten so bad that the school’s janitor has had to readjust the emergency door hinges five times and shave each door at least twice.

“The engineers -- both ours and from the state -- tell us that our building is structurally sound and safe to have school and have children in it,” co-interim superintendent Ken Hill said.

While that may be the case, Hill said the school is not taking any chances.

When school starts on Aug. 18, they’ll have two less classrooms.  One classroom will serve as a storage area, and the other will become the school’s newest conference room.

“Technically those would have been safe, but cosmetically it's clear that people would have concerns putting their children or grandchildren in those,” Hill said.

Engineers agree that all of the damage is the result of mine subsidence.  The school sits on the edge of a crater, and slowly the ground is giving way.  It looks like the building has 15 more years, so at the every least the undamaged sections of Belle Valley North will be ready when students arrive in ten days.

The district is expected to develop a contingency plan in case the buildings become inhospitable at some point in the near future. District leaders are working to secure around $20 million in local and state funding to build a new school.