Eastern Ky. elementary school, closed by flooding, faces week-long delay as repairs continue

The first day of classes for a Letcher County elementary school — still being repaired after devastating flooding closed the building over a year ago — will be delayed by about a week.

West Whitesburg Elementary was originally slated to open Monday but that start date has been delayed twice this week by ongoing work inside the school. Some community members have been concerned it wouldn’t open in time.

According to Letcher County Public Schools, the elementary school will now open August 21.

“I apologize in advance and ask for your patience as we do the very best job we can to make our building the best it can be,” read a Facebook post Tuesday signed by Denise Yonts, the school district’s superintendent.

The building, constructed in the 1970s, took between six and eight feet of water during last summer’s deadly flooding in Eastern Kentucky, Yonts told the Herald-Leader. The facility was originally constructed as an “open concept” school so much of the renovation work has included building walls.

“It has been completely renovated and looks completely different than it did prior to the flood,” Yonts said.

Local concerns that the building wouldn’t be ready for the first day of school have cropped up in social media posts and in the Mountain Eagle, the newspaper in Whitesburg, which last week published photos showing incomplete work.

Work cleaning up and finishing the school was ongoing Tuesday, Yonts said. Some wall-mounted air-conditioning units were not installed yet but were “in progress.”

“We’ll make sure that the building is comfortable and safe before we put kids in it,” Yonts said.

Three schools in Letcher County were flooded and West Whitesburg Elementary, with over 400 students, is the district’s largest school serving kindergarteners to fifth-graders.

This story may be updated.