Warren Schools Delay First Day After Storms Cause Outages, Some Damage

Warren County Schools had to delay the start of its new school year after Monday’s storms cause power outages and damages at some of its buildings.

Director of Schools Grant Swallows said Centertown Elementary sustained the worst of the damages, with a pavilion on the playground collapsing and several HVAC units damaged by wind gusts. He said out of an abundance of caution and to give crews time to clean up, they made the call to push back the first day of school to Wednesday.

“And I think if we had started today we would have spent a lot of time focused on trying to clean up as opposed to focused on kids coming back to us and I think that’s the important thing,” Swallows said. “I think our adults needed some time to get themselves prepared so that we can really, truly focus on kids coming back.”

Swallows said at this point, he believes schools will start on Wednesday. He said that Centertown Elementary will look a little different than normal while classrooms that sustained water damage are worked on. Swallows said they ask for flexibility while they work through the issues.

Swallows said he was thankful for the community’s support and rallying together after the damage from the storm. He said it is especially meaningful when there are still those in the community dealing with their own issues after the storm.

“I was at Centertown by 8:00 this morning and there were already lots of people there picking up tree limbs and moving tables so that we can have alternate locations for students in those classrooms and getting plans together so that our students will be excited t come back to school and our community is rallying together to get that done.”

Swallows said another advantage of delaying school starting was allowing a full day for maintenance crews to make sure everything is in working order.