Students back in burned school

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 19, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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GREENSBURG — St. Helena Parish Central High Principal Gary Porter signaled that it was time to start moving students from their lunchtime recess into classes around 12:40 p.m. Tuesday.

The high school’s 341 students had their first day back at their own campus Tuesday after the main classroom building burned down Nov. 3, allegedly at the hands of their former counselor and her ex-boyfriend.

Many said it was good to be back at their own school Tuesday after first being away, then having class at St. Helena Parish Central Middle School for two days last week.

But the high school does not have all the amenities it once had, including a bell to signal changing class periods, which must now be carried out the old-fashioned way.

“Let’s go. Let’s go,” Porter said as students hanging out under a covered pavilion next to their fenced-in, burned-out building began heading back to where class is now held.

School officials have put classes in buildings not touched by the fire.

Eight “classrooms” are on the gymnasium floor, staked out by a series of partitions, with the high ceiling overhead and a low chatty din all around Tuesday.

Three more classrooms are on the auditorium stage, also divided by partitions.

Six classrooms are in the freshman academy building, where before there were four classrooms, a library and a science lab, school officials said.

The temporary setup at the parish’s only high school is one that students and teachers must get accustomed to for the time being.
Interim Superintendent Daisy Slan said leads on available portable buildings have not worked out so far.

Also, the state Department of Environmental Quality is requiring an asbestos investigation before the blackened remnants of the school building can be torn down and hauled away, she said. The building dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Slan said she did not yet know when portable classrooms might arrive or when the charred remains of the building will be demolished. She said she is working on quotes for the cost of demolition and the asbestos survey.

Slan said she is also seeking quotes on portable buildings so school officials would know the cost, if buying or leasing them becomes necessary for the cash-strapped district.