Monday marked the “second” first day of school for Gary Community School Corp. students whose actual first day was back on Aug. 6.
Students got in three days of school and on Aug. 11, power went off across Northwest Indiana after a powerful 99 mph derecho ripped through Gary and other cities in Lake and Porter counties.
Gary schools didn’t regain power until Sunday.
More than 300,000 NIPSCO customers lost power.
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Many students struggled in homes without power and witnessed destruction in their neighborhoods with uprooted trees and dangling power lines.
Glen Park Academy fifth-graders Alexandria Mosley, 10, and Josiyah McBridge, 10, recalled what they saw that day.
On her way home from school Aug. 11, Alexandria Mosley, 10, said a tree had crashed onto her street on Jefferson.
“A tree blocked the street,” said Alexandria. “I walked home and I still don’t have power.”
Alexandria and her family stayed with an uncle in Michigan City during the first week of the outage that nearly stretched into two weeks.
Josiyah said classroom lights went out and students headed for the gym.
On the way home, Josiyah noticed a tree on top of a power line on Ohio Street. A crew was already working on it, said Josiyah.
Josiyah’s family was among the lucky ones, getting power back in three days.
The power outage came at the beginning of Erin Mason’s first year as a principal at Glen Park Academy.
She came to Gary from Chicago and is in her 15th year as an educator.
“It’s been an interesting start,” she said. “It shows how strong Gary is.”
She decided to come to Gary because she liked the tight-knit community. She’s amazed at how students returned Monday since many still don’t have power.
As of Monday afternoon, NIPSCO listed 7,135 customers in Gary still without power.
Glen Park Academy has more than 500 students and more are still registering, she said.
Superintendent Yvonne Stokes visited every school Monday and stopped by Glen Park Academy in the afternoon.
“We had already started, so we’re treating it like a reset to the first day… We still have a lot of kids that did show up in some of the buildings today,” she said.
“This is traumatizing, you know, and now we’ve got the water boil,” said Stokes.
Indiana-American Water posted boil orders Monday for Merrillville, Lake Station and Chesterton. Gary wasn’t among the cities among the posted orders.
Stokes learned Monday from the state Department of Education that Gary students, who missed eight school days during the outage, will likely have to make up five days.
“We’re getting a minimum of three days away, but we might get more. I’m trying to figure a path forward for making it up…”
Stokes said she conferred with Gary Teachers Union President GlenEva Dunham and was awaiting her proposal, too. Stokes plans to keep the end of the first semester in December, as originally planned.
Like the Hobart School Board did last week, Stokes said she’ll recommend to the Gary School Board that support staff workers receive pay for the eight days school was closed.
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“It’s nobody’s fault. And you know, at such a time as this, you definitely need your income,” she said. Gary’s school board attorney is writing up a resolution for the pay forgiveness, she said.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.