By Marcia Barnes
Staff Writer
Clay County Schools Superintendent Melissa Godfrey said that one of the reasons to reopen Hayesville’s school doors on Monday was to provide support with school counselors for any kind of emotional toll that the storm had taken on the kids.
“We want to resume some normalcy for them being at school and being around friends is good and healthy for them if we can be here,” Godfrey said.
The decision to close the schools because of an impending state of emergency which existed before hurricane Helene tracked farther east, closed schools in the county last Thursday and Friday. A decision to reopen school on Monday, Sept. 30 was a decision made by a team.
“On a normal given weather situation whether it be snow, ice, flood, I have a team of people that I converse with,” Godfrey said.
“That includes representatives from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, the N.C. State Highway Patrol, N.C. Department of Transportation, our own Transportation Director Jimmy Moore who is over our bus fleet and Jeff Ledford who is over Clay County Emergency Management.”
Godfrey said in this situation, the reason schools were closed on Thursday, Sept. 26 was because the timing was a little uncertain.
“I felt confident we could get kids here, but one of the weather maps for Thursday showed that our area was in the highest potential for life-threatening flash flooding and that it would happen very quickly.”
Godfrey said the concern was not so much for getting students to the school, the concern was about what could happen very quickly and the inability to get them home. The National Weather Service forecast was the main catalyst for closing school on Thursday and Friday.
“It’s not a quick thing with buses, some of our bus drivers have other jobs and initially we were in the same weather bubble as the people who did get it,” Godfrey said.
On Tuesday morning, Sept. 30 Clay County Schools were the only district open in western North Carolina with fully functioning phone lines with help from Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Management Cooperative. Although there was some “push-back” posted on social media about the decision to reopen, Godfrey said there were several benefits for students and parents.
The decision to reopen school was made by the team and safety of students was the main concern. However, other benefits included that parents could go to the workplace, students who were dependent on food at school were being fed, the obligation to the community that a decision was reached with the safety of students a priority was met and resources for counseling were available to the students if needed.
“This is not about a leg-up being the first school to reopen,” Godfrey said. “This is about resuming normalcy.”