Rutherford County Schools welcomed students back to class two weeks ago, about two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit. But students at Pinnacle Elementary School in the town of Rutherfordton are still surrounded by reminders of Helene’s impact.
Stumps are all that’s left of four of the large trees that once stood inside the school’s car rider loop. And inside the building, in an old computer lab and two spare classrooms, Principal Ashley Twitty and her team are operating a food pantry and clothing closet for students and families coping with damaged houses and ongoing trauma.
Twitty has collected enough items through support from the community to fill an extra classroom as storage. The school regularly sends home checklists with students for families to select items they need, and Twitty and her team work to fill those orders. The operation doesn't involve teachers — it's important to let them keep up their work in the classroom, Twitty said.
And while she knows it can't last forever, she's hoping to have enough donations to keep it running until the spring.
In the immediate aftermath of the storm, Pinnacle Elementary became a hub of relief activity, with Twitty and her team mobilizing to provide community members with clean water, ice, showers and even quarters to pay for laundromats.
But Twitty said relief efforts were still needed even after classes resumed. Pinnacle is the westernmost school in the district, pulling from communities in the badly hit Lake Lure and Chimney Rock areas. At least two students lost everything they owned, Twitty said.
“I firmly believe that a child cannot learn unless their basic needs are covered," Twitty said. "They’ve got to be fed. They’ve got to be clothed. They’ve got to feel safe.”
Educators across the state are trying to strike a delicate balance as they reopen after Helene. They’re focused on making up lost instructional ground while also making sure students’ basic needs are being met.
“We’ve had a few in several of the classes that I work with that are still in a displacement situation out of their homes and maybe they’re living with a relative or something like that," said Andeena Torvinen, a teaching assistant at Pinnacle. "So that’s quite a distraction, especially for those smaller ones.”
Ra’chelle Roberson, a parent of 9-year-old twins at Pinnacle Elementary, is also worried about those distractions. She spent the night of the storm huddled up with her kids in the walk-in pantry of their Lake Lure home. Their home’s second floor was damaged, and the next day dawned with the house surrounded by downed trees.
“It worried my daughter so much, she actually gave herself a heart arrhythmia during this whole thing," Roberson said. "So it’s been trying times, to say the least, you know, to be without power for 15 days.”
When school started again, her kids had to get ready in the dark, stepping over power cords connected to noisy generators. As the immediate impact of the storm passed, Roberson began to worry about her kids’ education.
“You are concerned with, how long are we going to be out for?" Roberson said. "And, you know, what impact will this have, you know, on them, and especially the trauma just from the storm — how can they focus on, you know, math and reading?”
Treading lightly, coping with trauma
With that in mind, schools have tread carefully. Many spent their first few days back in class just letting students decompress. Pinnacle, for instance, held spirit days, like a pajama day, meant to help students feel comfortable in school again.
Over in McDowell County, public schools reopened Oct. 9. Superintendent Tracy Grit said teachers focused on lighter activities the first few days and have slowly transitioned back to learning.
But Grit says not all students have the same needs — Old Fort Elementary School was severely damaged, so students are being taught in a different facility. The district purchased new virtual curriculum software to help out Old Fort teachers whose materials were destroyed. And always lingering is the concern about what students are facing when they leave school grounds.
“This was a lot of days in a row. And it’s also the trauma factor when the kids come back, how focused can they be on learning if they’re still worried about what’s going on at home?" Grit said. "So we’re just taking it day by day.”
There’s also concern about what will happen months from now, when the influx of relief dries up, Grit said. The county could see a shortfall in property tax revenue because of the lost homes, which might affect education funding. J.W. Kelley, the president of McDowell Technical Community College, says he’s worried about what resources will be available for students and schools in the coming months.
“Right now it’s a sprint, and eventually that sprint’s going to be done and now we’re going to start the marathon of recovery," Kelley said. "And mental health will be a piece of that.”
Over at Pinnacle, Twitty also worries about the long-term impact of the storm, just a few years after COVID-19 closures forced students out of school for years. Still, she said there’s a lot to be optimistic about.
“COVID kind of separated us, and this is bringing us together. Where COVID, we were kind of isolated and learned in isolation, this is bringing us together.”
But Twitty still worries — especially about how young elementary school students might react the next time there’s a storm.
