Pinellas schools ready to re-open after ‘quick’ recovery

Once every Pinellas County public school had electricity restored, Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said, inspecting the buildings for damage, and any potential safety issues created by Hurricane Milton, became paramount. That happened Sunday and Monday.

All the work has been done, and Pinellas County Schools – all 128 of them – will re-open Wednesday morning.

“Every school has power, so you’re able to run the health, safety and security systems and make sure they’re all functional,” Hendrick told the Catalyst Tuesday morning at Pinellas Park High, which suffered the worst damage in the school system.

“Let’s cycle the air through, let’s make sure we can have food, let’s make sure the water’s clean. Let’s test all of our security systems, from fire alarms to security systems, gates, all those things. So those are all checked out, and at that point you’re ready to open. It doesn’t mean you’re ready for Open House, but it’s ready to open school. And for a lot of parents, they need that.”

Yes, he added, there’s enough gasoline for all school buses to run on schedule. Because there are still traffic lights inoperable around the county, school officials are aware earliest classes may not start precisely when they’re supposed to Wednesday. “Safe is better than on time tomorrow,” Hendrick said.

Workers in the “mall” at Pinellas Park High.

Pinellas Park High’s central “mall” area had a few broken windows and ceiling tiles. “Thankfully, the majority of our classes didn’t take water,” principal Jeffrey Larson said. “But we’re not experts in the field, which is why we’ll go to our teachers and say ‘Do you notice anything out of the ordinary? Do you know of anything that has to be fixed?’ And we’ll go from there.”

To prepare, every school’s teaching staff returned to work today.

Hendrick said he was not surprised that the turnaround – Milton hit six days ago, on Oct. 9 – was so fast.

“These things move quick,” he explained. “We have a number of contractors that helped us with major renovations like this that are on standby – and this particular one happened to be down the street at Gulf Beaches Elementary and Madeira Beach K-8 from the last storm. So they just pulled people over here to stabilize this environment.

The disaster recovery and property restoration company SouthernCat performed the remediation work at Pinellas Park High, with cleanup volunteers from school staff and employees.

“Our crew’s great,” Hendrick said. “When there’s no power, they work when there’s sunshine. And when there’s power, they work around the clock. It’s imperative that we get the community back to normal.”

Gulf Beaches Elementary and Madeira Beach K-8 are the only two Pinellas public schools temporarily relocated because of hurricane damage. Those schools’ relocation information is here.

After a media briefing with Hendrick, Larson, Area 4 Superintendent Michael Vigue and Pinellas County School Board Chair Laura Hine, Larson led a tour of the remediation efforts ongoing at Pinellas Park High.

Suspended from the ceiling in several rooms and hallways are long, clear plastic tubes – roughly the thickness of dry-cleaning bags – into which hot air is being pumped.

Each has strategic small openings up and down its length, directing the treated air downward to dry out any remaining moisture.

It’s a safety measure. SouthCat, said Larson, “went through every classroom, and they put on their stamp of approval.”

Asked during the media event whether the days lost from Hurricane Milton will somehow be added to the existing school year, Hendrick said it’s being worked out.

“The school year is all about hours and minutes, not days,” he said. “So there’s not a magic number of days. We’ll be sharing with our board next week a proposal that looks at adding some days that would have been off second semester, that will now be on. And then adding minutes to every day to catch up and exceed the number of minutes.

“What’s important to know is we actually go much longer in the school day than we’re required to, each and every day, so we’ve built up a bank of minutes already this year. We’ll add a few minutes, and a few days that would have been off, will now be student days second semester.

“One day will be in January, one will be in February. We are not looking at doing the Thanksgiving holidays.”

Pinellas County Schools website.

At Pinellas Park High Tuesday morning: Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Kevin Hendrick (left, at podium), Area 4 Superintendent Michael Vigue, Pinellas Park Principal Jeffrey Larson and Pinellas County School Board Chair Laura Hine.