When doors open for staff and students at Yancey County Schools today, many are looking forward to a fresh start.
Almost a year ago, Hurricane Helene devastated the county of over 18,000 people leaving behind water, power, and infrastructure issues. It also caused major disruption to the schools.
The school district, which consists of 2,080 students, was shut down for more than seven weeks, according to the superintendent of the district, Kathy Amos. It was one of the last Western North Carolina public school districts to resume classes after Helene, according to EdNC.
Amos said two schools, Micaville and Clearmont Elementary, were unusable after the storm. Staff and students were moved to nearby Burnsville and South Toe Elementary.
As the hard-hit community was navigating the devastation, the functioning schools were turned into distribution centers and shelters, housing the National Guard, Red Cross, and lineman workers.
“We were really busy during that time,” Amos said. “Everyone really did a good job in trying to assist our families and our students.”
As recovery started to slowly progress, students returned to school on Nov. 18 to finish out the rest of the school year.
Many challenges still exist for the district in the upcoming year.
Schools are still undergoing repairs. Some of the buildings in the district are anywhere from 30 to 60 years old and need a lot of work. Five of them have already been renovated.
Another concern is housing for students. In June, 109 students were still displaced from the storm.
“ We're working through that to see if that number's increased or hopefully decreased as folks are rebuilding and have a plan,” Amos said.
As children return to classes today, she is reminding staff to be mindful and patient with one another and with students.
“How do we prepare ourselves when kids come back in, realizing that some of them have still had traumatic experiences that they're recovering from?” Amos said. “(By) being compassionate and then accepting that long-term recovery process.”
East Yancey Middle School’s challenges reflect what the district as a whole is struggling with. William Byland, principal of East Yancey, said about 50 students are still living in trailers or temporary homes.
He said that even if individual students weren’t directly affected, it still brings up trauma.
“ Every kid that's lived here has been here and seen it,” Byland said. “We all still get nervous when it rains hard, which is a really hard thing to describe. There's weird things like that bring up that trauma.”
He said he admires the resiliency of the students who are coping with the death of a classmate and friend due to Helene.
The middle school was the only school in the region to lose a student to the storm. The student's fellow eighth graders held a “graduation” night ceremony with a tribute to their friend.
“They all put a flower in a vase for him,” Byland said. “It was an emotional and good night but I think that the students were resilient through it and were very focused on improving themselves and making sure that they were okay, as well as his friends.”
As Byland looks ahead to the upcoming school year, he said he feels the excitement from families and students. There is a sense of a new beginning
despite all the events that occurred almost a year ago.
He said there's a focus on making sure that relationships between the students and teachers are the most important thing when kids come back into the classrooms.
“Kids are a whole lot more than a test score or a grade or an assignment they're missing,” Byland said.
To help students and staff with trauma, the district has invited the team of counselors who were around at the end of last semester to be available at schools again in September.
