TYRONZA, Ark. — Getting students back to school is the goal in Tyronza after an EF-1 tornado chewed through town earlier this week, leaving little mercy on the small town, and even the city’s school was caught in it’s wake.
The doors at the school are boarded up, and workers have been on the roof all day. From the air, you can see the damage after a tornado ripped through Tyronza.
Right now, the whole district is out because students from different towns also attend this school.
WREG talked to the superintendent right after he met with architects, engineers and the fire department about what’s the next move.
“Right now, we’re trying to come up with the best plan to get students back into class as fast and safely as possible,” Poinsett County Schools Superintendent Mickey Pierce said.
Construction on the school’s roof that was blown off was in full swing Wednesday.
Pierce said thankfully no one was at the school when the twister hit. He explained that the the roof was blown off two of the classrooms on the south side of the building, where fifth and sixth graders for the entire district attend classes.
“Whatever part of the roof that blew off from the south end hit the roof on the north end and knocked a hole in it,” Pierce said.
He hopes that part of the school can be patched up.
The plan right now is to hopefully have the students back in school by Monday. He hopes pre-k through fourth graders can still attend school at Tyronza Elementary because their part of the building, the north end, wasn’t damaged.
Fifth and sixth graders will go to neighboring Lepanto to be with seventh and eighth grade students already there.
“The teachers have been working diligently for the last couple days to make that transition as seamless as possible for the kids,” Pierce said.
There will be another meeting Thursday morning to decide if they can use the north end of the building, as full repairs will probably take a few months.
The school set up a needs list on Amazon.