Community pleased with decision to rebuild Hampton High School
CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Carter County Board of Education voted to repair Hampton High School, which was significantly damaged by Hurricane Helene in September 2024. The decision was one of four options the board considered, according to Carter County Director of Schools Brandon Carpenter.
'Several options involved the consolidation of a couple of different high schools,' Carpenter said. 'But in the end, financially, all of those were a very large commitment that we would have to go to the county to make. And we felt like in the benefit for all of our citizens and our students, that the best option was to rebuild in its current location.'
Carter County BOE votes to repair Hampton High School at current location
Carter County Mayor Patty Woodby is a Hampton alumnus and has a child attending the school. She told News Channel 11 that several mitigation elements, like a retaining wall, were needed to keep the school where it is and protect it from any future floods.
'Every piece of property in the Hampton area is in a floodplain or a floodway,' Woodby said. 'There would have been no better location to move a school to other than where it's sitting at now. We can keep the school where it's located, and FEMA and TEMA and TDEC and all the powers that be are going to allow us to do the proper mitigation to protect that school and keep this from happening in the future.'
Principal Kayla Clawson said it's been emotional for her and her staff as they try to keep everyone together through this time. Hampton students told News Channel 11 there's a sense of excitement since getting the news, and they're thankful that there's finally light at the end of the tunnel.
'It's been really positive, and it's just kind of like a burden has been lifted, you know?' Hampton junior Jackson Smith said. 'Everybody's been kind of like sluggish because we really didn't know what was going to happen. So after hearing the news last night, everybody's been really excited and positive to be able to get back in our own school.'
'Sometimes it takes patience, but they have adapted so well and been so flexible through this whole process,' Clawson said. 'The faculty, the staff, the kids, they've done an amazing job. They're really the superstars in this.'
Clawson said they've made the most of their time in the Keenburg Elementary building. While it wasn't ideal, it brought the school and the community together.
'It's been such a blessing that we had somewhere to go, that it's a roof over our head and it's clean,' Clawson said. 'It's been the best possible scenario for us. I think that's also a testimony to our community and the values that we hold in sticking together and overcoming obstacles together.'
The students have been resilient through it all and appreciate the hard work of the county.
'Nothing short of a miracle happened last night,' Smith said. 'And I want to thank Mayor Patty and our board members and our administrators and Dr. Carpenter because they have worked tirelessly through the entire thing from start to finish to be able to get us back into our own school. And I just want to thank them for that.'
According to Carpenter and Woodby, the county expects the project to be done and the students to return in January 2026.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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