Students return

District still settling into new portables



Kynlee Gulley, a pre-kindergarten student at H.G. Olsen Elementary School, holds hands with her mother, Storme Gulley, as they are welcomed by teachers, police officers, school board members, cheerleaders and oodles of bubbles. Being held by Storme is her son, Ryder, who is six months old. Among those welcoming them are from front, Michele Lorette, a trustee on the PAISD school board, Scott Burroughs, police chief, Sharon Dignum, instructional aide, and Marc Hofheins, who is also on the PAISD Board of Trustees.

Kynlee Gulley, a pre-kindergarten student at H.G. Olsen Elementary School, holds hands with her mother, Storme Gulley, as they are welcomed by teachers, police officers, school board members, cheerleaders and oodles of bubbles. Being held by Storme is her son, Ryder, who is six months old. Among those welcoming them are from front, Michele Lorette, a trustee on the PAISD school board, Scott Burroughs, police chief, Sharon Dignum, instructional aide, and Marc Hofheins, who is also on the PAISD Board of Trustees.

Nearly 400 students were in attendance as Port Aransas ISD welcomed students home on Monday, Oct. 16, 52 days after the district closed due to Hurricane Harvey.

Leo Javier, a maintenance worker with the Port Aransas Independent School District, hammers signs into the ground to point students and the rest of the public the way to the various classrooms and offices that make up H.G. Olsen Elementary School. The classrooms and offices have been moved into portable structures because Hurricane Harvey heavily damaged the district’s regular school buildings. The signs were donated. (See story, Page 4B.)

Leo Javier, a maintenance worker with the Port Aransas Independent School District, hammers signs into the ground to point students and the rest of the public the way to the various classrooms and offices that make up H.G. Olsen Elementary School. The classrooms and offices have been moved into portable structures because Hurricane Harvey heavily damaged the district’s regular school buildings. The signs were donated. (See story, Page 4B.)

School officials were happy with the 397-student enrollment, even though they had 514 before Harvey.

Hope Love and her fourth grade daughter Chloe, who attends H.G. Olsen Elementary School, are welcomed back to Port Aransas ISD by Rodrigo Salinas, a teacher at Port Aransas High School. Students and parents were excited to be back on campus for a sneak peek and registration event on Friday, Oct. 13. For many students, this was their first time back on campus since Aug. 24. Classes started Monday, Oct. 16, and are being held in portable classrooms until renovations to the school buildings are complete.

Hope Love and her fourth grade daughter Chloe, who attends H.G. Olsen Elementary School, are welcomed back to Port Aransas ISD by Rodrigo Salinas, a teacher at Port Aransas High School. Students and parents were excited to be back on campus for a sneak peek and registration event on Friday, Oct. 13. For many students, this was their first time back on campus since Aug. 24. Classes started Monday, Oct. 16, and are being held in portable classrooms until renovations to the school buildings are complete.

The district expects more students to enroll once more homes have been refurbished, said Sharon McKinney, superintendent.

Students from Claude ISD, located in the Panhandle, designed, paid for and shipped 800 shirts to be delivered to each Port Aransas ISD student. The students had help from Fynz Apparel to print the shirts. Jim Potts, principal of PAHS, holds up one of the shirts that have both schools’ mascots on them. Potts and Derek Daniel, principal at Claude High School, attended college together.

Students from Claude ISD, located in the Panhandle, designed, paid for and shipped 800 shirts to be delivered to each Port Aransas ISD student. The students had help from Fynz Apparel to print the shirts. Jim Potts, principal of PAHS, holds up one of the shirts that have both schools’ mascots on them. Potts and Derek Daniel, principal at Claude High School, attended college together.

H.G. Olsen Elementary School had the most students, with 157, Brundrett Middle School had 92 and 148 students enrolled at Port Aransas High School, according to Rosalie Johnson, administrative assistant to the superintendent.

School officials said they were pleased with how smoothly the day went.

Even with part of the high school portable classrooms not being ready, and a plumbing issue at BMS and OES, the day went very smooth, McKinney said.

Students’ lockers were packed into moving boxes and stored by the district’s hurricane recovery contractor, so part of the day was spent going through those items, said Jim Potts, principal at Port Aransas High School.

“I was so happy with the way the kids and teachers reacted,” Potts said. “Students were attentive and respectful; it was a special day.”

Over at BMS, Principal James Garrett felt the day went almost perfectly.

“For what we are dealing with here, it went amazing,” Garrett said. “It felt like a normal school day.”

Gina McKeever, principal at OES, said the day went pretty well, overall.

“All the kids and teachers are just so happy to be back together,” she said. “Everybody is learning to adjust, but it’s going great.”

Danna Alcorn, a math teacher at BMS, was impressed with the number of kids who returned to her class.

Some of them even had completed homework to turn in from before Harvey, she said.

“I was impressed,” Alcorn said. “We had no problems with space. It was perfect for our class sizes.”

Even though the day was an overall success, Alcorn said she is looking forward to getting back into the real school buildings.

Contractors are unsure when BMS students will be able to return to their normal building, but PAHS and OES are expected to open in January.

Anthony Johnson, a freshman at PAHS, said it was an interesting first day of school, to say the least, but was excited to get back to Port Aransas.

He attended Flour Bluff High School while he was displaced.

“I was out of my comfort zone there,” he said about going to school in Flour Bluff. “Portables are a big change, but I feel I can adjust. I am just happy to be home.”

The biggest advantage to returning is being able to see his friends and teachers, he said.

“It’s nice coming back to what I am familiar with,” Johnson said.

Another PAHS student is Ashley Hunter, a sophomore who also attended FBHS before returning home to Port Aransas.

She wasn’t the happiest at FBHS, mainly because of the size of the school. She was excited to be back, but said things were a lot different from before.

“It was weird having three different classes in the same classroom,” Hunter said.

The other half of portables at PAHS are expected to open by Monday, Oct. 23, Potts said.

Students like Hunter were thrilled to get back to what they know.

“I like the comfort of knowing everyone,” she said. “I was so excited to get back.”

Andrea Alexander also is a sophomore at PAHS who felt it was good to be home.

“It was a little confusing,” she said about maneuvering around the modular classrooms. “But the connections with my teachers and classmates are still there.”

What Alexander can’t wait to see is how the school ends up once the buildings are restored.

“I think this puts it in perspective for our school,” she said. “We used to not think about the little things, but now we see how it is when you aren’t in a tight-knit community.”

McKinney was happy to have all her students and teachers together for the first time in more than seven weeks.

She was pleased with the way her staff has adjusted to being in makeshift classrooms.

“Kudos to all the staff for making this works” McKinney said. “We had to make a few last-minute tweaks, but everything worked well.”

The biggest problem was plumbing issues, she said. But plumbers worked around the clock to make sure students had a place to use the restroom.

Besides that, the day went smoothly, she said.

The superintendent was thankful for the parents who followed all the procedural changes, especially with the drop-off and pick-up process.

The most rewarding part of the day for McKinney was hearing high school students say they were happy to have their teachers back.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.