Middle school surfaces with success after Hurricane Irene [Sun Journal, New Bern, N.C.]

Jan. 08--STONEWALL -- A buzz of excitement was in the air with start of a new school term in Pamlico County's four public schools in late August 2011 -- tempered by the approach of Hurricane Irene, the first major storm projected to hit the county in eight years.

Principal Lisa Jackson, eager for her first full year at the helm of the school and its 317 students, prepared accordingly, as did more than 40 teachers and staff members. She took diplomas and photos off walls and put them in boxes and covered them, placing them neatly under her desk. Files in cabinets seemed safe. The big fear was that the relentless hurricane rains would find leaks through the roof.

Little did anyone know that the floor was the worst place they could have chosen to safeguard their valuables.

After all, in more than 50 years since it was built, the school had weathered many hurricanes without flooding.

With just a day and a half in session, hundreds of text books were also stacked on the floor throughout the five buildings that make up the countryside campus near the Bay River.

Jackson lives in a flood zone, so she rode out the daylong storm in Beaufort County with her parents. An 8 a.m. telephone call the morning of the storm from the Pamlico County Sheriff's Department went off like an alarm bell for a fire drill.

"They said 'water is most likely going to go in your school,'" she recalled. "My initial reaction was that will be the cafeteria and the gym. They said, 'it could be worse than that. It looks pretty bad.' I still did not expect what I saw when I walked in on Sunday morning."

The flood water had receded, but the damage was evident -- water marks two feet and more on walls in some buildings, buckled wood, file-cabinet drawers filled with water and soaked and destroyed electronic equipment and supplies everywhere.

"I remember the smell," Jackson said. "It was hot and humid and it was the first thing that hit you and it burned your eyes and throat. You could see the water lines and tell where the debris had floated around. There were a lot of tears that morning."

Jackson said new Superintendent Wanda Dawson did not waste time, calling together the staff to lay out a plan to deal with the devastation. It meant adding about 100 students to each of the three Bayboro-based facilities, the high school, primary school and Fred Anderson Elementary.

"At that particular moment, I did not know if we would ever be able to reopen the school," she said.

Teachers returned the Thursday before Labor Day weekend and student filed in the following Tuesday -- eighth-graders at the high school; seventh-graders at Fred Anderson and sixth-graders at the primary school.

"They (other schools) immediately found places for us. They moved people out of computer labs, used the stage in the auditorium, used the drama room, the music room," she said. Classes doubled up in shifts to accommodate the extra students.

Donations amounting to about $20,000 have come in along with assistance from afar, such as a middle school in Virginia, which held a fundraiser and sent the Pamlico School a hefty check.

"Community and beyond has been amazing," she said. "A lot of kids lost their clothing and their school supplies."

The price tag to fix the school came to more than $800,000 and later the schools found out that FEMA would cover only about 10 percent. The schools got a boost this past week when the county commissioner signed off on a 15-year non-interest state loan for $730,000 to pay for the repairs and renovations. The schools came up short on FEMA support in essence for not having flood insurance on paid-for buildings.

April Rose, who teaches physical education and is the school's athletic director, agreed that the students have responded with what would be an A-plus grade.

"Kids are really resilient, they adjust," she said. "I felt really bad for the ones that lost their school and their houses and homes and their stuff. I think that being at school and being with their friends kind of took them out of that reality of when they were at home. It was easier for them to come to school sometimes and do something besides sitting home and looking at the tragedy and worrying about what the adults were worrying about."

There has been, she said, comfort in numbers.

"Even though they have been scattered out, they are with people who care about them and people they know," she said. "I feel like the best thing for kids is structure and as long as they have something to look forward to, they are going to be OK."

Rose, a fourth-year teacher, went to her parents' home in western North Carolina the evening before the storm. She kept up with Hurricane Irene via Facebook and Twitter from students, along with Charlotte-area TV reports.

"I got a picture on my phone and knew there was no way we could get back in there with that much water," she recalled. "The whole baseball field was under water and I knew the gym was pretty much under water."

She was heartened when she returned to find that most of the P.E. equipment and uniforms were safe in a storage space 20 feet off the gym floor.

Like the other teachers, she was told "to be flexible, expect the unexpected and roll with the punches," by Superintendent Dawson. "Everyone was worried about us having to split up the kids and there was a lot of talk about athletics."

Since school sports are such a uniting thread in any school, Rose wanted to maintain normalcy if possible.

"We like to call it P.E. on Wheels," she said. "I definitely ran athletics out of the back of my car for all the fall sports."

Rose noted that she and fellow physical education teacher Kevin Knox were blessed with a warm fall and mild winter temperatures.

"We've held a lot of our classes outside and were able to follow our curriculum to a T," she said.

Sharing the Pamlico County High School gym has been a workable challenge for classes and teams. Favorable home and away schedules have aided in keeping indoor games on track.

Too, the Arapahoe Charter School has pitched in to aid its public school neighbors, allowing use of its facilities for after-school practices.

Rose said the entire school is looking forward to returning to a refurbished campus and holding a mass pep rally in what will be truly a homecoming atmosphere.

Soon after the storm, the theme of rebuilding took a firm hold among the students. One example is a large mural that now hangs on Jackson's temporary office at Pamlico High. It is a painting of the school, surrounded by flood waters and being cradled between two uplifted hands -- one white, one black.

It was the work of the seventh-grade art class.

The title is "Rising Above," a theme that is being carried out.

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or [email protected].

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