JULY 28, 2011
THOMAS WELLS | DAILY JOURNAL
Crews prepare the grounds of what will become Smithville School’s temporary campus this year. The new campus will have 22 mobile classrooms plus a cafeteria, library and administrative office buildings. Students and teachers said that it will be meaningful to have school again in their hometown.
Smithville readies for emotional return BY CHRIS KIEFFER DAILY JOURNAL
SMITHVILLE – The opening of a new school year usually sparks several emotions. But the usual first-day jitters or excitement that will be felt by many students across Northeast Mississippi are nothing compared to the feelings that will be reverberating in Smithville on Aug. 15. Less than four months after a tornado ripped through the Monroe County town, killing 17 people and destroying more than two-thirds of its buildings, students will attend classes in Smithville for the first time since the tragedy. “I think it will be very different this year,” said senior Megan Whitehead, 17. “We’re all back again. We’re all with each other and still supporting each other.” Smithville students did return to school six days after the tornado struck, but those classes were held in nearby Becker at the Monroe County Advanced Learning Center. This time, the new school year will begin in the town where most of the 600 students live. “That will play a major role in the morale of the community,” said Smithville Principal Chad O’Brian. “We will have a Smithville campus. That will go
a long way toward giving us the normalcy we need.” The school’s campus, which was within the tornado’s path, remains badly damaged. As O’Brian toured it in mid-July, he watched cleanup crews haul away steel beams where the band hall used to be, looked at the pile of rubble where the gymnasium once stood and walked through hallways with pools of standing water. However, the Monroe County School District made the decision to locate 44 portable classrooms on a county-owned plot of land near Industrial Street. That will allow school to return to Smithville while efforts to rebuild the school’s permanent campus continue. “As long as we are back in Smithville it will be great,” said U.S. history teacher Jeremy Duke. “Having everyone travel around the county to go to the Advanced Learning Center was pretty difficult. “School here is the heartbeat of the community.” This summer has been a unique one for O’Brian. On this summer tour of campus, he walked through classrooms trying to determine which ones had textbooks and which ones didn’t. The storm had disrupted the school’s normal year-end textbook turn-in, and officials weren’t even sure which educa-
tional materials they had available. “Those are Algebra I text books,” he said upon seeing a pile of books in a classroom that didn’t normally host Algebra I students. “That’s good. That’s a state-tested subject.” Because dirt work hadn’t yet begun on the school’s temporary classroom – awaiting the results of an environmental study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency – O’Brian was using the trunk of his car as an office. He said he’s working hard to ensure the teachers will have everything they need to begin teaching on the first day of school and noted that the donations the school has received have been tremendous. “I don’t even know where to begin to say thank you,” he said. On the days when O’Brian needed to make phone calls, check emails, or interview new teachers, he’d used an office at Hatley. “The biggest thing without having a campus is that a lot of days are frustrating or slow,” he said. “It is hard to feel like you have accomplished a lot.” Soon he will have that office, and the students will return to classes in Smithville. Some say the summer has given them time to adjust to the tragedy
Smithville School’s campus was destroyed in April by the tornado that damaged much of the town. Students finished the school year at the Monroe County Advanced Learning Center in Becker. They’ll be on a temporary campus in Smithville this year, while their original campus is being repaired. that hit during the final weeks of school. “It has helped,” Duke said. “Everything was out of order. Getting out for the summer was a big help. The new year will be a fresh start for everyone.” Whitehead and her family have been living with relatives while they rebuild a home that was destroyed. “What has made it more dis-
tant is that we have been busy rebuilding and getting back to normal,” she said. It will be a unique year, Whitehead notes. She said she is anxious to see everyone but also nostalgic that she won’t be on her old campus. Whitehead’s younger sister, eighth-grader Mandi Whitehead, will be among those who will get to see the new campus
when the construction project is completed. So will freshman Ashtyn Hensley. “It will be like, ‘Wow,’” Hensley said. “I can’t wait to see the new stuff we are getting. I have pictures of what it used to be and will compare them to what it looks like. I think it will be a bigger and better school.” chris.kieffer@journalinc.com
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