By Anthony Varriano
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Jefferson Elementary School faculty was pretty upbeat after a meeting in the library Wednesday, despite being forced to use port-a-potties and teach no one on what was the first day of classes for the rest of the district.
This isn’t the first time Jefferson School teachers have lost indoor plumbing. Students and faculty were forced to use portas for a day in February a few years ago due to well issues, but classes were cancelled the next day and plumbing was restored rather quickly.
Kindergarten teacher Amy Hopfauf said she’s just thankful students won’t have to use portable toilets. Water still hadn’t been turned on by print time Friday, but second-year principal Stephen Schreibeis hoped it would be operational by the end of the day or early next week.
Multiple faculty members said the two weeks without students in classrooms has allowed them ample time to prepare and has united the faculty and staff.
“What it’s really done is given us a unique opportunity to have some extra time for collaboration between the grade levels and with our entire staff that we ordinarily wouldn’t have, and so we’re trying to take advantage of that,” Hopfauf explained.
Schreibeis said the faculty got a big scare when lights and computers flickered during their meeting on Wednesday afternoon, but it was likely a power surge as a result of the transformer near Albertson’s being destroyed.
“It could have been so much worse, so we’re all staying positive,” Schreibeis said. “If we would have had a fire here, it would have been devastating for the whole district.”
Schreibeis said floods have their own devastating aspects, though.
“With a fire, it kind of gets rid of everything, but with this you have to go through the stuff trying to figure out what you can keep and what you can’t.”
The principal realized the depth of the disaster when he eyed a desk that looked to be in good shape, but after he squeezed the edge of it, water seeped from a seam. At that point he accepted that almost everything in the basement would have to be thrown out.
“I went into it telling Mr. Farber that I was going to throw most the stuff away just in case, but it’s so hard throwing out some stuff …There was some brand new playground equipment down there. Luckily, insurance, though, will pick up some of that,” Schreibeis added.
While teachers are getting an extra couple of weeks to prepare their classrooms, some are doing so without materials they lost to the flood. Teachers tend to pay for classroom decorations out of their own pockets or inherit those materials from retiring teachers. Schreibeis said the district tries to help cover those costs, but there’s only so much money to go around.
“There were things down there that belonged to teachers … We have the list. What’s going to be hard is determining what belongs to teachers,” he explained. “There are some things that will be replaced that are covered by the insurance, and some things will be paid depreciable value. Unfortunately, a lot of those teachers’ things will be paid depreciable value.”
Teachers will also have to find a way to fit the same amount of curriculum into a school year that’s two weeks shorter.
“We don’t have to make anything up in terms of school hours, but we will have to make up all the stuff that they’re missing,” Schreibeis said of Jefferson’s K-2 students. “All the stuff they’d be doing these two weeks we’ll have to fit in.”
Much of that stuff consists of assessments and review of previous material, and multiple faculty members confirmed it cannot be skipped.
“We kind of start with some assessments to see where kids are, and every year is different. With certain groups, sometimes you can bypass certain skills and sometimes you can’t,” second-grade teacher
“I think most of the kids should be pretty jacked that they get two extra weeks of summer, but it has to be pretty strange for parents,” she added. “Some of them are keeping kids home or at daycare, but they’ve been very understanding. There’s not much we can do.”
Librarian Kolette Geiger is thankful for the maintenance and custodial staff.
“When I came into work I realized … the respect I have for our summer help and how they still came in every day without electricity and without plumbing and got this school ready to the best of their ability,” she said.
Schreibeis also received praise from much of his staff for his handling of the situation and said he’ll likely learn even more this year than he did in his first year as principal.
“Stephen’s made it really easy for us,” said first-grade teacher Amy Ree. “He’s done a great job trying to make sure that everything’s where it needs to be before we were here, and he stays really positive so that helps us stay positive.”
Schreibeis said the clean-up has been “slow” but the school “should be on schedule for kids.” The biggest obstacle remaining is flushing the water system and making sure it’s acceptable based on Department of Environmental Quality standards.
Jefferson Elementary students are scheduled to start classes on Sept. 6.
Reach Anthony Varriano at rrsports@rangerreview.com.