MCDOWELL COUNTY, W.Va. – Since the February 15th flooding, many students and residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground.
Assistant Superintendent Amanda Peyton says the district responded by opening schools like Mount View High as shelters and providing support to those in need.
“We started feeding our students and our families, so the schools that had power and had sewer, we opened up as shelters immediately, starting on Sunday (February 16th) and so we just jumped into action, figuring out how we could take care of our people by checking on our people,” said Peyton
Ensuring the well-being of students, their families, and faculty has been the top priority.
“We had to first check on our staff and our students to check on their well-being and their safety, and so our team here at the central office put a plan in very quickly to call and check on one another,” said Peyton. “We created a document to be able to call everyone and document who had power, who had water, who was displaced, who had transportation, who had roads that had significant damage. We’re still conducting that with our students today.”
The Board of Education is also working with the Department of Highways to assess damaged or impassable roads and establish safe bus stops.
For students unable to return to school by March 10th due to road conditions, Peyton says,
“Those families that do have road problems or issues, they’re displaced, they might be in another town, we’re going to work individually with those families to provide an education to those students.”
Due to flooding and winter weather causing school closures, Peyton says the Board of Education has worked with the state superintendent to apply for a waiver to revise the spring semester calendar.
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