LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Some of the nearly 1,000 students forced to attend classes in temporary spaces after their two schools near Lafayette were damaged by a November storm could be back at their old schools next school year.
Tippecanoe School Corp. officials are planning to restore Mintonye Elementary School classes at the school’s repaired building in the fall, but the neighboring Southwestern Middle School won’t be ready, the Journal & Courier and WLFI-TV reported.
Mintonye’s students and sixth-graders from Southwestern have been in leased space at a former school owned by a church.
Superintendent Scott Hanback said plans are to avoid having to pay rent during the next school year by moving the sixth-graders to Wea Ridge Elementary School, which was being expanded before the storm. Seventh- and eighth-graders from Southwestern are now attending the neighboring Wea Ridge Middle School.
“We think that will work well because it gives the sixth grade students and staff a space in the building where they can have some identity, have some unity,” Hanback said. “It gets them closer to their classmates.”
Rebuilding work is expected to begin soon on Southwestern Middle School, which had part of its roof torn off and some exterior walls demolished when the storm hit on a Sunday afternoon.
Two tornadoes hit near the two neighboring schools in a rural area about five miles southwest of Lafayette during the Nov. 17 storm wave that saw about two dozen tornadoes across the state.
Hanback said rebuilding plans were proceeding at both schools.
“As we know right now both projects are where we expect them to be,” he said. “Our concentration is really centering right now on the logistics of our summer transitions.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.