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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wilkesboro Church, Child Care Program Team Up in Model for Others
This article was originally published in EducationNC. In the last 18 years, Wilkes County has lost 56 child care programs, 67% of its child care capacity. This year, thanks to a scrappy community effort, local leaders saved the county from losing another. Sharon Phillips and her daughter Katy Hinson, owners of PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center, cut the ribbon on their new location inside Wilkesboro United Methodist Church in April, expanding their business after months of wondering whether they'd survive at all. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'I consider what happened there a miracle,' said Todd Maberry, former managing director of the Ormond Center, a project at Duke Divinity School focused on helping churches assess their communities' needs and find new ways to meet them. The center, which is closing this summer, helped the Wilkesboro church decide how to use an empty wing to help address a local lack of child care and bring in new revenue. The specifics of the initiative, called 'Big Building, Little Feet' — both the people behind it and the speed at which they raised more than $600,000 as the five-star program faced eviction — are specific to this community. But the model itself, Maberry said, has lessons for the entire state. 'There's not one of the 100 counties that doesn't have a church that has an empty educational wing sitting there,' Maberry said. 'This can be a blueprint.' With pandemic-era child care funding gone and bipartisan state leaders prioritizing child care solutions, local leaders like those in Wilkes County are convening, collaborating, and raising money to make things work for their neighbors in the meantime. 'Communities need to think outside the box,' said Michelle Shepherd, executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, the local Smart Start partnership. 'I think that's the biggest takeaway. These children deserve quality child care, and what does that look like, and what do communities have to offer?' In 2023, Phillips and Hinson were touring every vacant building in town. They were looking for a larger space to expand their 10-year-old business and help fill child care gaps. That year, a study funded by the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation found that the county needed 836 additional child care slots, almost double the capacity it had. The report's findings, released by the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were starting conversations in the business community. 'The child care study revealed what a crisis we were in,' Hinson said. Hinson and her mother were already struggling with a balance familiar to child care owners. They did not have enough revenue to pay teachers much more than minimum wage, couldn't raise tuition without pricing out families, and were unwilling to cut costs by lowering quality. Stabilization grants funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act were expected to dry up, leaving a large gap in the budgets of programs across the state. 'We just kind of felt like we had done all we could on our own two feet,' Phillips said. Phillips and Hinson were coming up short in their search. 'We had knocked on doors, we had toured all the vacant buildings, we had been to town officials,' Phillips said. Then they started conversations with a local entity with its own financial struggles: Wilkesboro United Methodist Church. 'Our church has dramatically shrunk … especially post-COVID,' said Gilbert Cox, who has attended the church since 2008 and was the chair of its finance committee at the time. Cox recalled holidays when he first joined with people overflowing into the aisles and Sundays with regularly full pews. A couple of years after the pandemic, the church was lucky to have 50 members attending services. 'This is a very common story for a lot of congregations in the country, particularly in North Carolina, particularly in rural places, where mainline churches have just been decimated by a pandemic, by disagreements,' Maberry said. 'And Wilkesboro is not immune to that.' Plus, more than 90% of the church's space was sitting unused more than 90% of the time, Cox said. 'Eventually, what was an asset was going to turn into a liability,' he said. 'The maintenance of it, and it stored more and more. I think we found five pianos. There were two in a closet we didn't even know about.' The church entered a six-week 'design sprint' with the Ormond Center called the Community Craft Collaborative to figure out a different path forward. The process aims to helps churches better understand their community through data and interviews, and then encourages them to come up with an idea to experiment with. Through a conversation with the EDC, Cox learned about the child care study's findings. The organization connected him to Phillips and Hinson, who had recently reached out in their search for a new home. By the end of the sprint, the church presented its idea: house and expand PlayWorks. Phillips and Hinson toured the church's facilities and heard from the church's leadership that they were on board. 'How could we take what is becoming a liability, and better connect to the community?' Cox said. In April 2024, a contractor gave an estimate on the building renovations necessary to meet regulatory standards. It would cost about $1.6 million. Everyone involved agreed: 'It was insurmountable,' Cox said. The potential collaboration felt like it had died, and Phillips and Hinson were back to square one. 'Everybody ghosted,' Phillips said. While they were already down, they were hit with what Phillips described as 'a gut punch.' In June 2024, the program received an eviction notice from its landlord, a local theater company that wanted to repurpose the space. PlayWorks had to be out by September. Their hunt for a new building became a make-or-break endeavor. 'I can just remember thinking, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? We don't have any choices,' Phillips said. 'I immediately called Michelle at the partnership.' Shepherd, who had been the executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children for about a year, said she immediately understood the urgency. With a background in K-12 education, Shepherd had spent her time at the partnership learning about just how dire her county's child care needs were and developing relationships with a whole new sector of educators. 'We just couldn't let them fold,' she said. Shepherd's leadership was a game-changer. 'When she wouldn't give up, I wouldn't give up,' Phillips said. Through a $15,000 grant from the Ormond Center, the church paid an architect for renderings, moving forward without knowing whether things would work. Through a stroke of luck, a local contractor was called in to do the building's measurements who was interested in bidding on the project. This time, the estimate came in at about $600,000. 'Michelle says, 'Don't give up,' so it breathed new life into the possibility,' Cox said. 'Even though the church didn't have $590,000, Michelle — she deserves all the credit — she said, 'Let me see what I can do.'' Everyone got busy. Hinson and Phillips asked their landlord for an extension on the move-out date. The church began a deeper process with the Ormond Center to map out the details of the project. Shepherd, with no fundraising experience, started making calls. 'We all stepped out in faith that it would happen,' Hinson said. The child care study helped Shepherd tell potential donors the story of the community's need, she said, and explain the importance of child care for workforce participation. 'This was not some 'Betty Froo Froo' project; this was a necessity for our community,' she said. 'That really played on the heart of business people in the community.' Hinson and Phillips got an extension from their landlord for their move-out date to November, and then to April 2025. Once Shepherd received the first big 'yes' — a $250,000 donation from an anonymous community member — others started following. 'That was my big driver, that we can't tell these kids, 'You've got to go home,' and parents that they can't work that really want to work,' she said. She reached out to people with a connection to PlayWorks, who understood the importance of the high-quality care and education it provided for children and families. She received donations from dozens of individuals, including a large contribution from private donor Janice Story and funds from church members and partnership employees. She also reached out to foundations and community groups, securing grants from the Carson Foundation, the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation, the Cannon Foundation, the North Carolina Community Foundation, and United Way of North Carolina. The effort did not receive any local or state public funding. 'All of a sudden, Michelle had almost a half a million dollars in a matter of almost weeks,' Cox said. The Ormond process provided real estate and zoning expertise, as well as a video crew to help the community tell its story. It was rooted in 'asset mapping,' Maberry said. 'We've got a church with empty space, we've got an incredible child care center that is flexible and can move, and we've got a local nonprofit that's committed to the well-being of children in the county,' he said. 'Those are great assets. They can begin to look at, 'OK, well, there's a child care crisis, and one of the better ones is about to go away. How do we solve that?' Shepherd said her mother was a salesperson, and always told her that salesmanship requires a good product and a powerful 'why.' She had both. 'We had people that gave $50 up to $250,000,' she said. 'It truly was a community, dollar-by-dollar fundraiser.' From November 2024 to March 2025, the team reached their goal. The local contractor agreed to start construction before all the funding was secured to help Phillips and Hinson reach their move-out deadline. There were many obstacles. The team almost had to call off the project once again when they realized the extent of the plumbing needs to have appropriate sinks in each room. They coordinated between sanitation, the county inspector, fire safety, and the state child care licensing under the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). 'There was not a single source that you could go to who could give you all the answers,' Cox said. PlayWorks closed on March 20 and 21, a Thursday and Friday, plus the following Monday. In that long weekend, they moved with the help of family and friends and set up every classroom. On Monday, the center had its final sanitation inspection and a visit from DCDEE. They opened their doors to children on Tuesday. The execution of the move, Phillips said, was a miracle in itself. Through the months of ups and downs, she kept thinking of the families she serves and the educators she employs. 'I kept going back to, how do we tell our staff? How do we tell our families? We are in such a child care crisis, there aren't spots available in many places in the other child cares. How can we disperse 60 children in this county? You know, where are they going to go?' On the day EdNC visited PlayWorks, Hinson and Phillips were moving in sync. Hinson went between classrooms, providing extra hands for fussy infants. Phillips met with licensing officials in the office during their second DCDEE check-in, which required a fire drill. 'We never really dreamed that something like this would happen,' Phillips said. 'We're just the proud recipients.' The day before, they had celebrated the team's accomplishments with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, during which church leaders called the moment 'a revival.' But the next day, it was back to the work they both love and are challenged by. The new space will allow PlayWorks to expand from serving 55 to 88 children as they add three new classrooms (for infants, toddlers, and 4-year-olds) in the coming months. The church is providing the space at less than $6 per square foot, Cox said, compared with the area's average commercial lease of $28 per square foot. It is also covering utility costs. Phillips said they do not expect any problem filling the new seats. They will first check with families on their waiting list. An interested family was visiting the program during the fire drill, during which all children were walked or rolled to a gazebo in the parking lot. 'Word of mouth is just really getting around,' she said. Phillips and Hinson are still hiring and rearranging teachers to staff the new classrooms. Each room has three teachers for now, for 'an extra layer of quality.' They start teachers, depending on education level and experience, at anywhere from $10 to $15 per hour. The median wage for the state's child care teachers was $12.31 in 2022. Though PlayWorks is not immune to the staffing challenges experienced by the field, multiple teachers have stayed for several years. Teacher Rachel Brionez has worked at PlayWorks since it opened because of 'the environment that Sharon and Katie have created' among the staff, the families, and the children. Educators refer to Phillips and Hinson as 'the dynamic duo.' 'They value us, and that makes coming to work so much better,' Brionez said. 'You don't dread the alarm clock going off.' Brionez said her experiences in child care have not always been positive. Phillips said the same about her early career experiences. Because of the low pay, high stress, and instability, Phillips had discouraged Hinson from going into the field. She pushed her to be a nurse instead. That all changed after one conversation, while Hinson, a high schooler at the time, was helping her mother with her pre-K class. 'She just broke down in tears, and she says, 'I'm not going to be a nurse,'' Phillips said. 'We both cried. And she said, 'This is all I know through you.' … I told her, 'We will do something for your career.' And that's why we're here.' Because of temporary state funding, the funding cliff that worried providers like Phillips and Hinson in 2023 was pushed back. In March 2025, programs received their final installment of the compensation grant, which has helped them raise teacher pay and plug the gap between what families can afford and what it costs to provide high-quality care. 'With the stabilization grant money from the state, we were able to give teachers those raises and bonuses, and we're going to do all we can for that to continue,' Hinson said. Advocates and DCDEE are asking the state legislature this session for child care investments to support the state's child care subsidy program, which helps working low-income families afford care, and the early childhood workforce. None of the current proposals would provide the level of funding providers were receiving from stabilization grants. 'It's worrisome,' Phillips said. 'I really put it on the back burner, just knowing that, with the move and everything, we've got to move forward.' As Phillips and Hinson both breathe a sigh of relief, they know their future remains unclear. 'We'll make it on a slim margin — or I hope we will,' Phillips said. 'I'm just thinking very optimistically that we'll make it work, but it's going to be very hard.' Shepherd said the mutually beneficial partnership required resources that not every community has. She sees the state playing an important role in providing grant money to repurpose space — similar to the Rural Downtown Economic Development Grants. 'I just think this is a great model for a lot of places to look at underutilized space and how to bring in some revenue for both,' she said. Maberry is hoping to find a new way to continue the work of the Ormond Center, which had 55 relationships with churches. Some were working on child care projects, he said. Others were opening mental health services and helping their communities with affordable housing. 'Churches are at their best when they are meaningfully integrated into their community and are making their communities better places to be and to live,' he said. The Wilkesboro project is an example of the power of dynamic partnerships and possibility in a time of disruption. 'For the church, it's energized them,' he said. 'Like they've got kids in their building now, all day, every day, and they're starting to think, like, OK, well, if we can do this, what else can we do? Imagination can be contagious.' The children, staff, and administrators at PlayWorks are settling in. Across the street is an assisted living center whose residents can now see playing children on their walks. Phillips said she does not know whether Hinson will ever let her retire. They both said the new space feels like home. 'With some hard work and perseverance, we've made it,' Phillips said. This story was originally published on EducationNC.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Child Health Report Card Focuses on Youth Mental Health Needs
This article was originally published in EducationNC. The biannual Child Health Report Card from NC Child and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) is now available. In addition to evaluating 14 key indicators of children's health, the 2025 report includes a special section highlighting school-based mental health resources. According to a press release, the decision to focus on youth mental health was driven by worsening trends and the need for greater support services. 'We know that schools play a vital role in the lives of children,' said NCIOM President and CEO Michelle Ries. 'Schools are where children learn and where they build connections. What happens in school matters for their development and for their health.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter This edition's special section covers access to student mental health support staff, mental health referral services, the connection between physical activity and mental health, and social media and mental health. 'Today's youth are dealing with rising rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation — and what happens at school can contribute to those issues through peer pressure and bullying,' said NC Child Executive Director Erica Palmer Smith. 'However, what happens at school can also help alleviate the challenges young people face. We need to look at the factors contributing to the youth mental health crisis and how to best address them.' According to the press release, there were 1,928 students for each school psychologist in 2024. That's nearly four times the 500:1 ratio recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists. 'School psychologists, counselors, and social workers provide vital support for students with developmental, learning-based, and social-emotional needs,' said Ries. 'They are often on the frontlines when it comes to prevention, intervention, supporting students in the foster care or juvenile justice system, or helping children who are at-risk'. 'North Carolina faces a youth mental health crisis, and our school systems should be part of the solution to help address students' needs,' said Dr. Ellen Essick, section chief at NC Healthy Schools within the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. 'The solutions are less about fixing students, teachers, or our schools, and more about fixing a system that's not supporting our students, teachers, and schools satisfactorily.' The report card evaluates North Carolina on 14 indicators of child health and well-being. Those indicators fall into four broad categories: secure homes and neighborhoods, access to care, healthy births, and health risk factors. Below is a summary of the grades for each indicator, organized by category. F – Housing and economic security F – Child abuse and neglect D – Oral health F – School health C – Health services utilization and immunizations A – Insurance coverage B – Breastfeeding B – Preconception and maternal health and support F – Birth outcomes C – Teen births D – healthy eating and active living D – Tobacco, alcohol, substance use F – Mental health D – Education More details about these grades and indicators can be found in the full report. According to the press release, NC Child and NCIOM hope that the key findings in the latest report card can guide parents, decision makers, school personnel, and other child health practitioners across the state. 'What we know is that these grades — and their impact on our state's children — can change for the better,' said Smith. 'The Child Health Report Card tells us what's working and where we need to improve so that every child in North Carolina can reach their full potential.' This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Greensboro School Is First Public Gaming and Robotics School in the Country
This article was originally published in EducationNC. Historic Foust Elementary School has had a game changing start to the year. School and district leaders, parents, and community members were eager to get inside one of Greensboro's newest elementary schools for their ribbon cutting ceremony on Feb. 3, 2025 to witness an innovative progression in the school's history. They were greeted by students and the school's robotic dog, Astro. Foust Elementary School, part of Guilford County Schools (GCS), is the country's first public gaming and robotics elementary school, according to the district. The school still sits on its original land, but the building has been rebuilt from the ground up. They began welcoming students into the new building at the start of 2025. Foust Elementary School's history goes all the way back to the 1960s. Foust student Nyla Parker read the following account at the ribbon cutting ceremony: Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'Since its construction in 1965, Julius I Foust Elementary School has prided itself in serving the students and families of its community, with the goal of creating citizens who will leave this place with high character and academic excellence. … Now, almost 60 years later, we welcome you to the new chapter of Foust Gaming and Robotics Elementary School. As a student here at Foust, I am excited about various opportunities that will be offered to me as I learn more about exciting industries such as gaming, robotics, coding, and 2D plus 3D animation. Thank you to the voters of our community for saying yes to the 2020 bond that allowed this place to become a reality for me and my fellow classmates. Game on!' Foust is a Title I school in a historically underinvested part of Guilford County. Several years ago, the district conducted a master facility study, which resulted in Foust getting on the list to receive an entirely new building. 'Foust was one of the oldest buildings in the district and it was literally falling apart, so we were on the list to have a total new construction,' said Kendrick Alston, principal of Foust. 'During that time, we also talked with the district and really thought about, well, building a new school. What can we also do differently in terms of teaching and learning, instead of just building a new building?' The mission of Foust is to 'envision a future where students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and tools to lead the new global economy,' according to their website. The new global economy, featuring high projected growth in fields that include technology, was a driving factor for planners as they decided to focus the school on gaming and robotics. There are many jobs that can come from learning the skills necessary to build video games and robots. Looking at recent labor market trends, many of those jobs are growing. Web developers and digital designers have an 8% projected growth rate from 2023-2033 with a median pay of $92,750 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Related 'We looked at a lot of studies, we looked at research, and one of the things that we looked at was something from the World Economic Forum that looked at the annual jobs report. We saw that STEM, engineering, those kinds of jobs, were some of the top fastest growing jobs across the world,' said Alston. 'When we think about school looking different for our students and being engaging, well, let's make it something that's relevant to them but is also giving them a skill set that they can be marketable in the global workforce as well.' The team at Foust, including teachers and staff, have spent several months in specialized training on a new and unique curriculum designed to help prepare students for the ever evolving world of work. The building, designed to bring 21st century learning to life, is part of the first phase of schools constructed from a combined $2 billion bond. 'I am excited for what this new space is going to produce,' said Hope Purcell, a teacher at Foust. 'With the continued support from our robotics curriculum, students will have the opportunity to tap into a new world of discovery that will prepare them for the future.' Many community and education leaders were present at the ribbon cutting, including several county commissioners and Guilford superintendent Whitney Oakley. Oakley shared excitement about the new school and reminded everyone that the leaders who came before her who advocated for the passing of the bond and were open to the vision of a school like Foust were a huge part of making this new school a reality. 'Today is not just about celebrating a building,' Oakley said. 'It's about celebrating what this building really represents, and that's opportunity and access to the tools of modern K-12 education. It represents the culmination of years of planning and conversation and design to make sure that we can build a space that serves families and students for decades to come. The joy on the faces of the staff and the families and the students is just a reminder that teaching and learning is more effective when everybody has the resources that they need to thrive, and that should not be the exception, that should be the rule.' Students sometimes need different levels of support and resources in order to thrive. Foust hopes to be a place where all students can succeed. Another school district in New Jersey, the Morris-Union Jointure Commission, is using gaming and technology to engage students with cognitive and behavioral differences. They have created an esports arenadesigned specifically for students with cognitive challenges, like Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is just one example of how gaming can create an inclusive learning environment. Related As Foust settles into its brand new building, they are already planning for new opportunities ahead, including partnerships with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for innovative programming for students and parents. This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Four Districts Had Damaged Schools After Hurricane Helene. How Are They Doing Now?
This article was originally published in EducationNC. Four schools took on so much damage during Hurricane Helene that their students needed to relocate. Some temporarily, some permanently. Public schools in Henderson, McDowell, Watauga, and Yancey counties had to pivot once students returned after the storm. Here are updates on those buildings from the superintendents who oversee the districts. Atkinson Elementary School's campus is split by Perry Creek in Henderson County. The facility was built in 1982, and the gym sits on one side of the creek, the school building on the other. Due to unprecedented rainfall from Helene, the creek swelled, and both buildings took on two inches of water. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Henderson County Public Schools (HCPS) Superintendent Mark Garrett said the water receded within two hours, but the problem was time and electricity. School leadership tried to work their way to the building once the storm passed, but with having to cut their way out of homes and unblock roads to the school, doors remained closed and moisture impacted the floors. Compounded by the lack of power to help with air circulation after arriving at the school, Atkinson Elementary would need to replace all the floors before reopening. Garrett said initially they were going to have to divide Atkinson Elementary students amongst the school district, but a community partner intervened before he had to make that call. 'The coolest thing happened — the local Boys and Girls Club stepped out and asked if we could utilize their space at all,' reflected Garrett. Kent Parent had been the CEO of the Henderson County Boys and Girls Club for one week, and immediately welcomed the entirety of Atkinson Elementary staff and students to the building. Flooring was essentially the only thing that needed to be replaced at Atkinson Elementary. If it wasn't on the floor, it wasn't impacted, said Garrett. Since the building was from 1982, the majority was carpeted. They ripped that up, replaced some asbestos tiles and drywall, and put in new flooring. Insurance was quick and easy to work with, and FEMA has come to discuss future proofing with mitigation funds for potential other natural events. Atkinson Elementary students reported to school at the Henderson Boys and Girls Club on Oct. 15. Garrett's aim was to have the school building ready to reopen by Christmas. On Dec. 16, students were welcomed back to the Atkinson Elementary campus, a week ahead of Garrett's goal. 'I think what I want people to know is our community was very gracious and understanding,' Garret said. 'Our teachers and the principal there worked like crazy to make the Boys and Girls Club feel like home and feel like school to them. Then they had to move it all back.' Garrett believed it was a 'Herculean effort that they put forth,' and he couldn't be more grateful. Mill Creek sits behind Old Fort Elementary School in McDowell County. The creek was overrun with water, flooding the building and parking lot during Helene. The school building originally opened in 2020 and is still closed due to damage. Old Fort for the time has merged with Pleasant Gardens Elementary School. Tracy Grit, superintendent of McDowell County Schools (MCS), said the goal is to open back up in the fall of 2025, and he believes they are on target to meet that timeline. In early October, Grit assured a church full of Old Fort Elementary families that the building was '100% salvageable,' but it would take time to get there. The biggest challenges have remained environmental — dealing with humidity and the impacts of moisture on the building infrastructure. 'Part of it is getting a building not just clean, but dried out,' he said. The cleanup happened quickly, and they've slowly gotten their HVAC system back up and running. They hustled to get two feet of mud out of the parking lot, gutters, and drain pipes to mitigate another flooding event inside the building had it started to rain again. Grit credits the Army Corps of Engineers along with the MCS maintenance department on getting the exterior of the building cleaned so quickly. Old Fort Elementary's gym floor had been ripped up and was replaced by the second week of January, and the work to put flooring back in classrooms has just begun. 'There's a lot of behind the scenes documentation that has to go into this,' Grit remarked. He praised working with the state on insurance, and while the district doesn't have a lot of wiggle room in terms of money, the deductible is something that FEMA will reimburse. 'Right now we're just in this documentation phase. If you can imagine itemizing every single item in a school, and then you got to catalog it and get it into a system,' Grit said. The work is tedious, but Grit understands its how to get this school back up and running. 'When you have that much water in a building, you're going to see power on, you're going to see lights on, and you're going to think, 'Oh that building (looks open), we should be able to get back in there.' Well, that's not the case because you have to have the right climate before you can start putting down floors,' said Grit. Grit praised the principals of both Old Fort Elementary and Pleasant Gardens Elementary, Jill Ward and Erin Rayfield, who are working together in one school to continue to educate their kids. He said the transition isn't without its hardships and that the Old Fort Elementary staff are ready to get 'home,' but he is so impressed by everyone at MCS. At 2 a.m. on Sept. 27, Dr. Leslie Alexander, superintendent of Watauga County Schools, was at Valle Crucis School with the district's assistant superintendent, the school's principal, her husband, and five maintenance workers. They were using five pumps to remove incoming water from the basement of the school. The school was constructed in 1935 as part of the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was prone to taking on small amounts of water. Alexander knew no one would stop working unless she told everyone to go home. Principal Dr. Bonnie Smith wouldn't leave her school, so her husband and the other maintenance workers stayed on pumping until 7 a.m., and then the power went out. They had it fairly under control, but then, 'the rain really started coming in. And you know, right where we were standing, it got to be about 4 feet of water,' said Alexander. The historic stone school is 66,000 square feet. Of that, 46,000 square feet took on water. There was already a new school being built for these students a quarter of a mile down the road, but due to construction issues and the hurricane, completion has been delayed. The new Valle Crucis School building will not be completed until summer of 2025. Leadership needed to figure out where it was going to put students for the foreseeable future. 'Bonnie and her staff, they were really pretty adamant. They wanted to keep the kids together as much as they could,' said Alexander. Three community education institutions stepped in — Appalachian State University (ASU), Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (CCCTI), and Valle Crucis Conference Center — to host the students in need of a temporary home. ASU happened to have one preschool classroom that was already approved on campus, so it was a perfect fit for the littlest learners. The district has a great relationship with the Lucy Brock Child Development Lab at the university as well. K-5 students moved to the conference center, which was originally the community school. The middle school students found a place at the local community college. 'The teachers talk about what a great fit it is when I'm over there. I mean, the kids just obviously feel very comfortable on that campus,' remarked Alexander. A silver lining to the storm. 'It's just such an invaluable experience for them to be able to see themselves on a college campus with college students, around that whole environment,' said Alexander. 'I really want to see what that next step looks like for those sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who've had that experience.' The superintendent is really proud of all the educators from Valle Crucis and their ability to adapt. 'The kids are laughing and they're engaged in their work, and they're just very, very happy to be back with other students and their teachers,' Alexander said. 'So just I commend that group of teachers and those employees for just really doing what's best for kids.' The Busick community sits off of NC-80 in Yancey County. Busick is in the South Toe Township, and 31 inches of rain were recorded there during Helene. Also along NC-80, and below Busick, is Micaville Elementary. 'A wonderful old rock school, a fantastic school for the Micaville community and Yancey County,' reflected district superintendent Kathy Amos. The rain flowed down from Busick, swelling the creek behind Micaville, and flooded the building to the point of no return. There was already a consolidation plan for the district in place — the WPA school building was constructed in 1936 — and the plan was to close it for students, move them to newer schools, and use it in some way for the district or community. But the storm disrupted the established timeline. Amos needed to determine where the 198 students and 30 to 40 faculty and staff members would go and for how long. Three classrooms moved to South Toe Elementary. The school recently completed a renovation project, so they could take on the load. The other eight classrooms moved to Burnsville Elementary School, where they converted the media center into two classrooms, moved a class into the music room, and more to help with the additional students. 'Those teachers have been so helpful and gracious in this transition in just getting everyone settled,' said Amos. With Micaville Elementary closed permanently, the expansion plans are underway to add 14 classrooms to Burnsville Elementary School and 12 classrooms to Blue Ridge Elementary School. Burnsville's new construction should be ready this fall, and Blue Ridge's in the fall of 2026. Yancey County has dealt with ongoing issues with weather, water, electricity, and infrastructure. Budgets in small rural counties are strained with the cost of recovery, and even with insurance and FEMA reimbursements, it is challenging to pay for those exorbitant upfront rebuilding costs. Amos, however, remains ever grateful for all the help they have received, and resilient in the face of a future that may continue to throw her district curve balls. 'You just don't know what the day is going to bring, you know? We are able to see our students, and we're so blessed to have them back of the building,' Amos said. This article first appeared on EducationNC and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
