PHOENIX — Months after a pipe burst damaged a Phoenix elementary school, students are finally returning to their classrooms.
Herrera School for the Arts and Dual Language, near 7th Street and Buckeye Road, was extensively damaged when water poured into the building during a weekend last August.
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Students were displaced from the school, which has been under repair and renovation since the incident, but a small celebration was held Tuesday to welcome them back into the building.
Pom poms were waving in the air, and Herrera staff cheered and hollered as their kids walked through, excited to have their students back.
For the last seven months, the school of nearly 500 students was split up. The school, which serves preschool through eighth grade, had elementary students go to another nearby elementary school. Middle school students stayed on campus but went to a multi-purpose building that was shifted into classrooms and then some other students went to other schools.
“Now we’re all in one place and we can support each other as a family. There’s no feeling that could compare to that in education, just being together as a family,” said Carlos Ardon, the principal of Herrera.
Students in their respective classrooms stayed with their teachers at the other school, they just didn't have a school to call their own.
While the students spent more than half of their school year away from their building, they say they are as ready as ever to learn in their respective school.
“We only have two months left but we do what we can and we will do it great,” said Gerardo Romo, a first-grade teacher.
Parents who dropped off their students were also excited to have their kids return to their neighborhood school.
“It was an adjustment period but being back at Herrera is going to do good for the kids,” said Andrea Adams, a parent with three students at Herrera.
For students, it was an adjustment as well. Even though eighth grader Melinda Aguilar-Hernandez stayed on her school campus, it was not her same classroom.
“It was kind of hard at first, but we got used to it and we got through it,” Aguilar-Hernandez said.
Even though the students are back, there is still work being done in the schools. The district had hoped to have students in classrooms right after Spring Break, which did happen. However, the cafeteria and small other parts of the building still need to be fixed. The district plans to have the cafeteria done by sometime in April. In the meantime, students will eat breakfast in classrooms and lunch outside.
“Oh, it feels amazing. It’s the greatest feeling I’ve had probably since my first day as a teacher 22 years ago,” Ardon said of finally having all his students back on campus.
