Community

Church to House Elementary School After Flooding

TILTONSVILLE - St. Joseph Church is opening its doors to the pupils of Buckeye Local South Elementary after flooding damaged the school building over the weekend, days before the planned first day of classes.

Superintendent Kim Leonard said the school likely could not reopen for months due to water damage, including inside the walls. On Thursday, faculty and staff were busy loading up vehicles with supplies salvaged from the building and driving a few blocks to Mound Street and the site of the church.

"It looks like we are going to be able to move into the Catholic church," Leonard said Thursday morning, adding fire and health inspectors were reviewing the building to determine its suitability. Later that day, the Rev. William Cross of the church said the inspectors gave their final approval.

"We have already moved desks and tables and chairs, textbooks," Leonard said, adding the transfer is expected to be complete Thursday.

School at each of the three elementary school buildings, North, South and West, will begin Sept. 10.

The faculty of all three elementary schools worked together to transfer supplies.

One goal in looking for a temporary site for the pupils was location, with Leonard not wanting to disperse the 350 elementary school pupils far from their hometown. A percentage of students will likely be kept home for distance learning, and the sixth grade class will be housed at the junior high school, where they would have been going next school year. Pre-kindergarteners through fifth grade classes will be at the church location.

"We're able to keep all of our students and faculty and staff together at one location, and it's in close proximity to our elementary," she said.

Leonard said there will be little to no modification needed at the church.

"We have lots of open spaces and we're just able to set rows of chairs up," Leonard said.

She thanked the church for agreeing on comparatively short notice.

"(Cross) has been extremely accommodating. He has basically just opened up his church and welcomed us in," she said.

Leonard said the district was still in preliminary stages of assessing damage to the elementary school building.

"(We thank) the community for their patience while we are trying to devise this plan," she said.

Cross said he was happy to help.

"We want to help in any way we can," he said.

"Kim Leonard is a member of the parish there, so she's familiar with it. When they had their disaster last week, she contacted me about the possibility," Cross said. "For them to use our space until they're able to get back into their own building. ... That would eliminate them splitting up the students and faculty."

Cross said the space had been a school at one time and was still suited to the need.

"It's a lot of space that we're not using currently," he said, adding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic had already limited use of the hall. "We were just glad to be able to help because it's in our own community and education is important."

The space includes three classrooms, two halls which will be used as classrooms with hanging dividers, and a kitchen area.

Cross said this will not interfere with church worship or other activities, and school business will be strictly separated from the daily Mass.

"We won't be able to park alongside the parish center on Market Street because that's where the bus is going to come to drop off the children. We'll have to park on Mound Street," Cross said, adding other activities such as religious instruction will occur either on weekends or at a different location."

Cross said the space used by the elementary school will be strictly sanitized at the end of every school day.

"It's really nice to see everyone coming together for helping us move into this new building," elementary gym teacher Niel McCormack said. "It was definitely very shocking when all of this went down, but we've all come together and we really see now how strong we can be together."

Leonard said pictures of the new location and operations will soon be available on the district website www.buckeyelocal.net.