Students heading back to school in the Jasper-Troupsburg Central School District will have to deal with more than just COVID-19 regulations after devastating flooding last week brought by Tropical Storm Fred.
The high school building was hit hard by heavy rain, which resulted in extensive damage- and the inability for district officials to use the building. “I won’t sugar-coat the damage. It is extensive,” J-T superintendent LeAnne Jordan said after in a statement. “The best option for giving our students, faculty, and staff a year that is as close to normal as possible,” means utilizing an empty school building in Greenwood, she added.
“Today we also worked with Homeland Security and Emergency Services as well as a company that deals with the type of clean-up that our Jasper building will need before we can begin rebuilding the inside of our school,” Jordan added. “Over the weekend the high school will begin to be staged for a cleaning and sanitizing process that will take an estimated four weeks.”
But is using the Greenwood school really viable? The Canister-Greenwood district shut down the building in June 2012. C-G Superintendent Tom Cook said the building isn’t that far from being move-in ready.
“Because we’ve been keeping the facilities semi-operational, it is in really good shape. The entire second floor is student-ready,” said Crook. “We would need to clean out some rooms on the first floor. There’s a lot of furniture in there that could be repurposed for the J-T students.
Even better, officials in both districts believe that necessary updates and repairs can be done before the first day of school.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to [email protected]