The main classroom building at Gateway School on Hanna Street went up in flames twice in six months, unnerving administrators and yanking students whose curriculum depends on structure and consistency from the classrooms to which they had grown accustomed.

The arsonists destroyed more than just a building, Principal Laurene Beto said.

"We've lost a community center," she said. "That's what's so painful."

Gateway School opened as a permanent school in 1970 to serve mentally disabled students in South County. Since then, attitudes toward mentally disabled individuals have changed dramatically and Gateway staff, parents and students are proud of the progress. Recent fires set the school back to square one and shocked those who had worked to make it a thriving community hub.

Three classrooms of students were displaced and now 11 students are housed in a portable on the Gateway campus, nine elementary aged students have transferred to a classroom at Brownell Middle School and 12 others attend classes at South County Community School in San Martin.

County officials hope to start construction of the new school building within the next six months and be open for business by next fall, said Larry Slonaker, spokesman for the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Fire investigators are still waiting for results from the crime lab to pinpoint the cause of the fire, said Battalion Chief Ed Bozzo of the Gilroy Fire Department. Both fires are suspected to be arson.