School board to decide where Henryville students will finish year

The West Clark Community School Board will meet Thursday to decide where 1,200 Henryville students will finish this school year after a tornado destroyed their school.
 
On Friday, March 2, tornadoes moved through the area, destroying a big portion of the school. The building, which is located near IN 160 and on North Ferguson Street is a K-12 school. Dylan Cisell is a freshman and Zach Staples is a senior. The students have been volunteering, helping people in the community until they can go back to school. Classes have been canceled following the tornadoes.
 
"All kids say they don't like school, but once your school (is) even with the ground, you're kinda like, I miss it," Cisell said.
 
"It will be hard, but we will get through it," Staples said.
 
There is extensive damage to the school. The roof collapsed and cars were found in the building. The National Weather Service said the wind speed was about 175 mph.
 
"It might be a while before we can all enter that school again. We (are) all hoping that we'd graduate in that gym like everybody else has and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen this year," Staples said.
 
Crews have been working six days a week from about 7 a.m. until  7 p.m., trying to get everything in order. Some people who are working are from Henryville.

"The school is the heart of the community especially in a town like (this)and it, it kinda gets them over the trauma, if they're able to come back and restore themselves again. We worked on the school. We helped get it back," Rob Robbins with Belfor Property Restoration said.
 
Belfor has come in to do preliminary work, which includes salvaging whatever they can, demolition and research. The school board would like to see kids walking the halls of the school by September.

An insurance company has structural engineers who are putting together a report, which should be completed in a week. The report should give crews and the school board a better idea of how much damage was done and how much it could cost to restore the school.