Schools close, check damage, evaluate costs

A bronze dedication plate, once bolted to the front of Immaculate Conception Catholic School's 1940s-era building, lay on principal Tami Nenninger's desk Wednesday afternoon.

"It's been a long night and a long day," Nenninger said with a sigh. "There's so much that's been damaged, so much destroyed. It's just shocking."

Tuesday's tornado left the school at 308 S. Hope St. in near ruins, and forced the Jackson School District and St. Paul Lutheran School to cancel classes for the day.

The public school and St. Paul both plan to resume classes today, but Immaculate Conception will close for the week.

The storm rearranged the Catholic school's rooftop air conditioners, cracked or completely blew out nearly every window, destroyed a brick wall and left classrooms filled with debris.

A new $2 million classroom and gymnasium addition, which the school just opened last August, suffered extensive damage along with the original building.

"We worked so hard to raise money for the addition," Nenninger said. "I'm not an engineer, but I'd say that building is not salvageable."

The south wall of the school's new gym is bowed and badly cracked. Nenninger was informed by an architect Wednesday morning that the wall will most likely fall.

"You can see daylight through the roof of the gym," Nenninger said. "There are steel beams sagging, and there's about two inches of water on the gym floor."

An adult computer class was in session at Immaculate Conception when the tornado struck Tuesday night. A school custodian warned the instructor and students, and they took cover in the school's basement. No one received major injuries, Nenninger said.

The school was scheduled to let out May 30 after missing 10 days due to inclement weather earlier this year. The school board will meet today to determine what action should be taken.

Alternative locations

Nenninger said the public school district, Knights of Columbus and Notre Dame Regional High School have all offered space for the school to hold classes for the remainder of the year.

Wednesday marked the ninth day that the Jackson School District has canceled classes due to inclement weather this year.

However, district officials believe they may not be required to make the day up under a new inclement weather forgiveness rule designed to help Missouri schools that have missed more than seven days because of bad weather this year.

Anderson said he doesn't know how many students may have been affected by the storm, but the homes of several school employees received significant damage.

The school itself suffered only minor hail damage, although the electricity at Jackson High School and the board of education building was out Wednesday morning. By Wednesday afternoon, electricity was restored to all but one high school building.

"We were very fortunate, especially since the tornado came very near the board office," Anderson said. "But with the power out and our communication system down, there was no way we could have had school Wednesday."

St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson was also closed Wednesday, and principal Alan Lipke said a portion of the campus still did not have electricity late Wednesday afternoon.

"I haven't had a chance to check all of the classrooms or roofs yet, but I think everything's OK," Lipke said.

Classes should resume today as long as power is restored to St. Paul's west building, he said.

cclark@semissourian.com

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