The following narrative of this week’s events was delivered by Superintendent Fred Sanderson during the Sept. 24 meeting of the Board of Education. It was accompanied by a photo collage, which is now available here on CobbCast.
This has been an extraordinary and trying week for our school district – one like we have never seen before. But I am extremely pleased to report that as a result of all the adversity we have faced, many positive rays of sunshine have managed to shine through. At this time, I would like to give a short synopsis of what our district experienced this week.
Monday, September 21st began like the six days that preceded it – very rainy. But roads were open and business went on as usual throughout our county. By late morning, heavy, steady rains had saturated Cobb County, swelling local creeks and lakes. School District Transportation officials had been monitoring the weather and an increasing number of road closures due to rapidly rising water, especially in the Austell and Mableton areas.
Clarkdale Elementary School principal Marjorie Bickerstaff was already concerned for the safety of her 442 students when water from nearby Sweetwater Creek began to spill into the school’s parking lot. She quickly decided to take action and began the process of relocating her students to safety.
Area transportation supervisor Eraina Drain saw the water flowing over the bus port when she arrived on the Clarkdale campus. She immediately called the District’s transportation office and arranged for eight buses from nearby Garrett Middle School to come to Clarkdale.
Mrs. Bickerstaff, along with her teachers and administrators, helped the entire student body evacuate the building in a matter of just a few minutes. Students stepped through ankle-deep water onto the buses, which departed safely back to Garrett.
As weather conditions continued to worsen, the District shut down all middle schools just after 1 p.m., allowing for safe bus transport for Cobb students at all levels. Buses arrived at Garrett to pick up and transport Clarkdale’s students home before another weather system arrived in early evening.
Less than four hours later, an empty Clarkdale Elementary School was submerged under brown water.
On Tuesday, District maintenance staff hitched a ride on a local johnboat in order to get their first look at the damage to Clarkdale. With water remaining higher than ceiling level, the building was inaccessible.
Meanwhile, administrators were hard at work devising a contingency plan for the Clarkdale students, with nearly every division collaborating to find solutions. Immediate concerns included finding nearby classroom space that would keep students as close together as possible, rerouting transportation, and ensuring proper technology support. In just over 24 hours, we had a solid plan in place.
Several generous offers for building space came in from the community, but our first priority was to keep the students in Cobb County schools. With a little creativity, we managed to create space at two nearby schools: Austell Intermediate is hosting 225 third- through fifth-grade students, and Compton Elementary is hosting 217 kindergarten- through second-grade students.
Mrs. Bickerstaff immediately notified her parents to let them know a community meeting would take place that night to lay out the plan and hear input. More than 500 parents showed up.
Maintenance staff worked all day Wednesday and into the evening, installing furniture and materials from our warehouse into space at the two schools. Faculty and staff from all three schools went above and beyond to help prepare classrooms and bring in what instructional materials they could. Our technology department delivered and installed necessary equipment. Many staff worked late into the night to prepare for the reopening of schools this morning.
At the same time, our Transportation team was hard at work reconfiguring bus routes to avoid numerous road closings that remained from Austell to Kennesaw. Buses began arriving at stops in the Austell area as early as 6:15 a.m. today to pick up students. Our transportation officials even arranged for a bus to pick up students at the Cobb County Civic Center, which is serving as a shelter for families that lost their homes. I think it is important for us to remember that as much attention as Clarkdale has gotten this week, students from several other schools have also been left homeless by the floods.
As trying and exhausting as the week has been, it was heartwarming this morning to see the students back in class. Austell Intermediate and Compton rolled out the red carpet for their friends from Clarkdale, hanging welcome banners and greeting students at the doors.
We’re proud to report a positive first day back for all three schools. Clarkdale Elementary remains its own learning family, evenly split between the two locations.
What’s amazing is how resilient the kids are. We had counselors at each location this morning to help students who were having trouble with the emotional aspect of what they had been through. Surprisingly, only a few students seemed to need assistance. Most seemed overjoyed to be back in a classroom with their own teacher, and one student said his new Compton classroom reminded him of Clarkdale.
Almost all of the Clarkdale students were anxious to hear the fate of their beloved school turtles, and Mrs. Bickerstaff let them know that at least one of the creatures had been located since the water receded and was doing fine. Today, maintenance crews filled three forty-yard dumpsters with debris from the devastated school.
The response to Clarkdale’s loss has been simply overwhelming. Offers of help have come in from as far away as Alaska and from all over our country. The generosity of our community, even in difficult economic times, has been staggering. We have posted information on the district web site that gives guidance to those who want to help.
All in all, it’s been a rewarding conclusion to a difficult week. Again, I want to commend every individual in this District who did their jobs so professionally, and even went above and beyond in this crisis situation. Most importantly, I am glad that all of our children are safe and sound, and back to learning in our classrooms.
Dante Durbin-Davis, 2009 graduate of the CCSD Performance Learning Center, is winner of a $6,000 scholarship from the Wal-Mart Foundation and one of the first students to receive the award. The scholarship is designed to assist at-risk students in attending college.
