All Manatee schools reopen after Hurricane Irma

After a six-day interruption caused by Hurricane Irma, the School District of Manatee County is back to business.

If the clean-smelling Prine Elementary School at 3801 Southern Parkway W., Bradenton, is any indication, the district’s massive challenge to sanitize and make minor repairs of wind damage at all of its 51 schools while school was out last week was successful.

Prine, which served as a shelter for 1,200, was spotless at 7 a.m. Monday, about an hour before nearly 1,000 children would arrive.

Hallways glistened with wax.

“As you can see, all the hallways are beautiful,” Prine Principal Lynne Menard said as she walked the school.

“Everything has been restored,” Menard added. “It’s been very busy. There have been many services here every day, so we could start today like the beginning of the school year.”

Bayshore Elementary last to get power

Late last week, Virgil Mills, Seabreeze and Bayshore elementary schools were still without power, and Bayshore ended up being the last to be restored, getting connected on Friday, said district spokesman Michael Barber.

“Every school was up and running. There were no reports of power problems,” Barber said Monday afternoon. “It was a normal day of school.”

Irma shut the school district down from Friday, Sept. 8, through Friday, Sept. 15, a total of six days.

On the school district calendar, Nov. 20, 21 and 22 are designated hurricane make-up days, Barber said.

“But it’s important to note that we have not made any decision on using those days,” Barber added.

All systems go at Prine

Like at all 51 schools, crews armed with checklists went over Prine’s internet service, printers and other equipment late last week in preparation for Monday’s reopening.

“The library is fixed and back up,” Menard said. “The cafeteria is clean again. They buffed the floors this weekend and put the welcoming furniture back in the lobby.”

Schools Superintendent “Dr. (Diana) Greene sent workers from every department to help us,” Menard said. “Even departments like food service came out, but we had so many helpers that I sent them to other schools to help.”

The areas used to house dogs, cats and birds during the sheltering were all especially scrubbed and sanitized.

“Our head custodian decided that everything would be scrubbed in a way that it didn’t contaminate nearby areas,” Menard said.

Every Prine classroom was carefully explored for anything left by the evacuees. Three mattresses and a sleeping bag were found.

During the sheltering, tape was applied in the hallways to mark where people could put their sleeping gear. That tape was all gone Monday.

“Food Service came in and threw out all of the food that was too warm and brought in all new food over the weekend,” Menard said.

Students to talk about Irma

Prine talked about the school’s role as a shelter on its Monday morning live news show.

“I also want to encourage the teachers to have the students talk about their experiences here ... so the students can kind of decompress a little bit,” Menard said.

With several storms now out in the Atlantic, Menard said her school will once again serve as a shelter if needed.

“At least we have done it once,” Menard said. “We would make some changes and do it again if we had to.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2017 at 10:02 AM with the headline "All Manatee schools reopen after Hurricane Irma."