Final stages

Monday marked one year since a tornado hit Jay County Junior-Senior High School, ripping open sections of the roof, flinging air-handling units and leaving debris strewn across the property.

Students are about a month away from returning to the classrooms they’ve been away from since then.

School administrators said the $2.23 million tornado repair project is about 80% to 90% complete, and the goal is to return junior high students to their classrooms after fall break.

“I think we’re ready,” said Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley.

Plans to return

The timeline for the project calls for the school to “retake” the space on Oct. 14, allowing furniture and equipment to begin being moved back in. Principal Chad Dodd said he’s hopeful that might come even earlier. (Staff will begin moving items as soon as they can, he said.)

He added that the goal is to give junior high students a tour of the space on Oct. 17.

“If you think about it, the eighth graders were only here six weeks,” he said. “And then they’ve been out a year. They don’t know where their classes are. And then seventh graders don’t know this area at all.”

Before they head for fall break — Oct 24 to 26 — students will pack up their lockers.

They will also be part of the moving project.

“The kids that are in (mobile units) are going to pick up their desks and they’re going to walk them to the classroom,” Dodd added. “Seventh period, 400 kids moving one desk is a heck of a lot more efficient than 20 people moving 400 desks.”

While students are enjoying a few days away from the classroom, staff will move lockers, teacher desks and other furniture and equipment. Technology will be assessed. Systems will be tested.

“Kids won’t be here, but a lot of us will be,” said Dodd.

When students return on Monday, Oct. 27, they will find their lockers in the junior-senior high wing of the building.

The damage

Just before 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, an EF-1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with winds reaching 110 mph, started near the intersection of county road 75 South and Joan Drive. The storm resulted in significant damage to the roof over the junior high area and IMC (library) of the junior-senior high.

The tornado reached a maximum width of 75 yards, traveling 2.74 miles on a path through the field and wooded area on the south side of Tyson Road, then along Tyson Road and Water Street in Portland, and angling slightly north to Walnut Street before dissipating about a block east of Meridian Street. (It also destroyed the home of JCHS teacher Kyle Love on the opposite side of Indiana 67 and took out the bulk of the upper level of American Legion Post 211.)

Damage to the high school included sections of the roof being torn off, air-handling units thrown from the top of the building and significant damage from water and HVAC fluids.

A crew of about 50 from Servpro, a firm specializing in clean-up and restoration work following water and fire damage, descended on the building to handle putting a tarp over the damaged area of the roof, sealing broken doors and windows, drying out and vacuuming liquids, and general cleaning in the week after the storm. Those efforts were just the beginning.

"I see whatever's happening there as significant," said Gulley while surveying the damage a few days after the storm. "And to me, that could mean any of the things we're talking about — flooring, gridwork, sub-deck structure … roof, HVAC, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, fire detection, fire suppression.

"We just got a project."

Big project

Jay School Board awarded the construction project to repair the junior high wing of the building in March, with Muhlenkamp Building Corporation of Coldwater, Ohio, as the low bidder at $2.23 million.

“It took longer than we thought, for sure,” said Gulley. “It’s just, we work at the pace of insurance, and anyone who has filed an insurance claim knows that.”

(Even before that contract was awarded, more than $2.3 million in costs had been incurred for the clean-up, mobile classroom and other items. Thus far, the bulk of the costs have been covered by insurance.)

The largest part of the project was mechanical — fixes to the HVAC system, replacing plumbing and other systems. A lot of the wiring has been replaced. The entire space will now have LED lighting. Drywall was replaced, where needed, and the entire area will have new carpet. The fire suppression system was also replaced.

The space was still a hive of activity with construction equipment and materials all around during a walk-through on Sept. 12.

“If you look at walls and some flooring done, mechanical stuff, I would say we’re about 80% there,” said Jay Schools facilities director Gary Cagle. “The next two weeks you’re gonna see a big change in things. Because now all your little touch-up work, your finishing touches, that’s gonna happen in the next couple weeks.”

Though the school corporation was only allowed to replace and repair rather than upgrade, the project still resulted in some improvements for the school. Lighting systems were simplified, old wiring was pulled and existing wiring was labeled and mapped.

“If there’s any kind of little blessing in disguise on it, we’re more knowledgeable about our area,” said Cagle. “The majority of everything, it’s been updated, it’s located and it’s going to be easier for the mechanics of things to be worked on.”

Back to normal

Eighth graders at the junior-senior high haven’t been in their normal classrooms for more than a year.

Though the school was only closed for a week following the tornado, junior high students were displaced when they returned. Some were shifted to other underutilized classrooms, some to larger spaces (choir room, rifle range) that were split by dividers and others into open areas like the pool breezeway.

On Dec. 1 — after Thanksgiving break — junior high students shifted to mobile classrooms located on the northeast side of the school adjacent to the main gym. They have been there ever since.

Staff have already been preparing to get students back in their regular classrooms. A Thursday earlier this month was spent going through storage pods and checking every item. Most were kept, but a full dumpster of materials had to be discarded.

Regular meetings are being held in an effort to make sure the logistics of moving students back to their classrooms are well thought out. Details such as making sure signs, flags and other items are available are being considered.

In order, Gulley said priorities are safety, comfort and then any finer touches that may have been overlooked.

While the mobile classrooms have worked out — teachers have enjoyed having windows and individual temperature controls — Dodd said he’s looking forward to having everyone back together under one roof.

“I think they feel a little disconnected,” he said. “And so getting them back in here and getting the kids in here, I think just unifies us again, because we feel a little split right now. 

“I think they’re ready. I think they’re ready to be back a part of what’s going on.”