Kentucky tornadoes: Dawson Springs school goes back to classroom, begins journey to normalcy

DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. — In some ways, it felt like a normal January morning.

Cars, their exteriors still coated in frost, lined the road leading to the school campus in Dawson Springs on Tuesday. Kids hopped out, walking by a huddle of teachers offering high fives and greetings on the way indoors.

Parents and grandparents walked other students to the door in the 20-degree weather.

“C’mon, bud,” an older man gently tugged a young boy along the sidewalk, as an older woman followed close behind, holding her gray scarf close to her face.

Tornado assistance: Here's how to get help if your home was damaged in the tornadoes

Around the corner, yellow buses bearing the name Dawson Springs Independent Schools dropped off still more students.

The journey to this moment of normalcy was anything but normal, though.

Some students didn't begin their Tuesday morning journey at their regular bus stop, but instead at state parks or at the homes of relatives, where their families had sought refuge after losing so much.

On the way to school, they passed piles of debris, mangled trees and barren land where they and their friends used to live.

They were arriving a few minutes earlier than normal, and would stay later, to make up the days they missed because of the Dec. 10 storm and the deadly tornadoes it spawned.

Despite the visible markers of instability, the day marked a milestone in the small Western Kentucky town's road to recovery.

After more than five weeks, its small independent school district of fewer than 600 kids was again open.

The path back to the classroom

Immediately after the December storm, schools ceased to be schools.

Instead, they transformed into crisis response centers, acting as hubs for information and an influx of donations.

Most schools in the hardest hit areas closed, planning to reopen as scheduled following winter break.

A week after the storm, Superintendent Leonard Whalen said everyone in Dawson Springs was still in "preservation mode." More than a dozen of his staff members lost everything, he said.

"It's bad. That's an understatement," he said at the time.

More education: Legislature, governor give Kentucky districts green light for more remote learning

Dawson Springs' school board decided they would postpone their return, instead reopening after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Over those weeks, they pivoted from emergency response coordinators back to places of learning. The school board's agenda a week before classes offered a snapshot of the continuing recovery efforts:

• They wanted to make the school day 20 minutes longer to make up the time they missed.

• They needed to authorize Whalen to submit paperwork to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

• They needed to authorize district property to be used for temporary housing.

• Like many Kentucky districts, they needed to discuss their COVID-19 mask policy.

And now, of all times, they needed to begin the process of finding a new school board member. Jenny Bruce, a longtime district administrator who joined the board upon retirement, was one of more than 70 Kentuckians lost in the storm.

Contacting each family

After the storm, it was expected some students would no longer be living in the district's boundaries. Dawson Springs collaborated with neighboring Hopkins County Schools in case students need to switch districts.

The district would attempt to provide transportation for students displaced and not living in Dawson Springs, Whalen told families in the weeks leading up to classes.

"We believe the best place for our students to heal is to be back with us," he wrote to families in a letter at the end of December. "We know our children and families and you know us. We are in this together and we plan to, in time, be back even better than before."

Kentucky tornadoes: As tornado recovery continues, attentions shifts to mental health

The district made contact with every family since the tornado, Whalen said. A "minimal" number of families left the district because of the storm.

Still, leading up to Tuesday morning, he wasn't sure how many kids to expect.

Normal illnesses were going around, and COVID-19 rates were up in the area, he said. And, as Dawson Springs reopened, the surrounding county district, which opened earlier in the month, had to close because of COVID-19.

Displaced families sticking with the Dawson Springs district face new challenges.

Speaking in her room at the Pennyrile Forest State Park, Lacy Duke explained her predicament. She got drafted for overtime at her job and needed to be there by 5 a.m. Tuesday morning. But the school bus doesn’t get to the state park until 6:45 a.m., leaving her kids, who are 11 and 9 years old, unattended for about two hours.

So, she set alarms to wake up at 3 a.m. to get ready and take the kids to her father's house. They will catch the bus there.

"It has been an emotional roller coaster," she said Monday night. "I’m excited they’re going back to some kind of normal, but there’s also part of me that’s scared, just with so much going on.

"(I'm) worried a lot about the next thing that may pop up.”

'Love, hugs, fun'

Outside the school Tuesday morning, a young girl ran up to the teacher at the school door, embracing her in a tight hug before pulling back to show off a rainbow jacket.

The teacher asked about her mask, leading the girl to grab her small red mask attached to a beaded lanyard. Then the teacher checked her temperature.

“You’re all good,” she said as the girl walked into the school lobby.

The school bells rang at 7:55 a.m., and minutes later, the intercom came to life.

The Pledge of Allegiance was first. Then the lunch menu — chicken alfredo or rib sandwiches, but the yogurt boxes were out this week.

Upstairs, Lauren Hibbs’ second grade class was finishing breakfast.

School starts earlier now, Hibbs told the class, so they may need to eat earlier and faster in order to start their reading groups on time.

Her whiteboard outlined the rules for the day: “Lots of love, lots of hugs, lots of fun.”

Waking up earlier

Next door, the hallways at the middle- and high-school portion of the K-12 school were quiet.

Kati Griffin’s first-period sophomore English class felt, understandably, a little sleepy.

Who wants to read, she asked her class of 11 students.

No hands went up.

So many volunteers, Griffin said sarcastically. A student would need to be “voluntold” to read the next passage.

Tornado donations: Kentucky collected $41M in donations for tornado victims. Where is the money going?

Pulling from a mention of video games in the reading, Griffin asked students how many played video games “during the time we were at home for the tornado.”

From there, conversation floated toward how the storm impacted them. One student said they had a few extra relatives staying with them following the storm.

Another student, who had a Monster energy drink sitting on his desk, said he moved about 30 minutes away to Madisonville. Between that and his mom’s new job, he was going to need to get up much earlier to get to school each day.

Funding and standardized testing

Watching some of the district’s youngest learners return to choruses of “Celebrate good times, c’mon!” on repeat, Whalen had some things to celebrate.

The school district was open. They had no hiccups getting kids to school that morning.

But his mind drifted to the long uphill climb in front of them.

The mental health of students and staff that will need extra attention. The high stakes state testing whose results may not come with an asterisk. The stability of families — and of the district itself — will continue to be in flux.

Funding a small independent district can be treacherous in a normal year. At least five independent districts have closed in the last 20 years.

In Kentucky, schools rely mainly on a mix of state and local funding. The state funding is determined by the number of students who show up on an average day — meaning if displaced kids switch districts or struggle getting to school, the district may see decreased funding.

Local funding mostly comes from property taxes. When property values drop from the disaster, or fewer people are paying property taxes, that hits the district's budget.

Because of a COVID-19 policy change, Whalen can use a previous year's attendance figures, holding his funding in check for a bit. House Bill 5, signed into law by the Kentucky legislature last week, offers $30 million for impacted school districts.

Tornado relief: Kentucky lawmakers clear $200 million tornado relief package

But Whalen said they'll need more help. He’d like to see his state funding held at current levels for the next five years. Same goes for the local property tax assessments.

He'd like some type of relief from testing or the associated accountability system, too.

Last week, he spent time meeting with lawmakers in Frankfort. He hopes legislation designed to support the small districts in Dawson Springs and Mayfield comes in the next few weeks.

But for now, he's focused on welcoming kids back.

Less than an hour into the first day, Whalen tweeted a photo of a whiteboard resting outside a classroom. He said the message on the board summed everything up:

"All you need to bring is YOURSELF! I'm so glad you're here! I love you all!"

Reach Olivia Krauth at okrauth@courierjournal.com and on Twitter at @oliviakrauth.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Dawson Springs school resumes in person for first time since tornado