Are Louisa schools beyond repair?

MINERAL — Louisa County could be facing a bill as high as $60 million to replace both Louisa County High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary after last week’s earthquake. Neither school will be open for the rest of the school year, and both may be beyond repair.

School and county officials said they weren’t sure whether the facilities could be repaired or if they needed to be entirely replaced at a specially held joint meeting of the school board and board of supervisors. Students, parents and teachers packed the Louisa County School Board administration building in Mineral to standing-room-only Monday night.

Students from Louisa County High will spend the school year at Louisa County Middle, and Thomas Jefferson Elementary students will be housed in mobile units and classrooms at Trevilians Elementary. Between the two schools, nearly 2,000 students were displaced after the quake.

According to Louisa County fire and rescue chief Scott Keim, damage to school buildings was at least $7 million over the schools’ insurance cap. Keim said the monetary damages would climb in the coming weeks, as assessments are finished.

“We have more than 600 damage reports in our database,” Keim said. “I’m proud to say we’ve assessed or laid eyes on more than 400 of them, but [the damages] will climb.”

Louisa County schools have been closed since the earthquake Aug. 23 and will not reopen until Sept. 12. In an attempt to return to “normal,” Louisa County Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Pettit said, there will be new open houses for middle school and high school students. The open houses will be on separate nights at Louisa County Middle School. 

“We know that when children and families are in stress, it’s hard for them to learn. We are trying to minimize the stress and get them back to normal,” Pettit told the school board, board of supervisors, teachers and parents. “This will become the new normal for us.”

Petit and members of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors thanked school staffs and fire and rescue crews for their efforts. Despite the severity of the damage across the county, nobody was seriously injured in the quake.

“If anybody didn’t consider this as a miracle, I don’t think they’re a true believer,” Supervisor Dan Byers said.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Willie Gentry thanked the community for its efforts and reminded residents rebuilding would be a long process.

“There’s a lot of people tonight here, teachers and staff. We’re surrounded by heroes,” he said. “We’re taking [it] one step at a time to get back to normal. This is not a short process. It’s going to take us years to get back to where we were just a week ago.”

Pending final reports by engineers assessing damage to the two buildings, the county may have to replace both structures. Those reports could take another three weeks to complete.

In the meantime, students from both schools could be spending two to three years in modular structures while construction is completed.

According to Pettit, the mobile units will open by the end of January, and remain the primary middle and high school locations while the earthquake-damaged school buildings are repaired.

At least through the first semester of this school year, Louisa high school students will share a building and split schedule with students at Louisa County Middle School. High school students will attend classes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, while middle schoolers will go Tuesday, Thursday and every other Saturday.

Despite drastic changes for this year’s school schedule and space issues, Louisa County parents voiced their appreciation for school staffs’ work. Lloyd Runnett, whose son Robert is a senior at Louisa High, said he was sure schools would persevere.

“Nobody likes change, nobody. Especially not my son, he’s a senior,” Runnett said. “But you know what he said tonight? He said: ‘You know what? We’re Louisa, this is how we roll.’ We’re inconvenienced, that’s it. Hey y’all, we’re Louisa, this is how we roll. Fist up.”

As for normal, Pettit reassured residents that some things wouldn’t change.

“Because it’s Louisa, we’re going to have our football game Friday night,” Pettit said. “I think Orange County is going to get clobbered.”