Thank you for the incredible show of community support and statewide and national support. I have that our visitors are here for a tragic event, however we greatly appreciate your service during our time of need.
I wanted to give you an update from the school system and items we have been working on:
We had officials from the NC Department of Public Instruction with us yesterday. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Gibbs helped us with more fuel from the state for our emergency vehicles and will be checking on our school system tech needs.
We met with insurance agents today to inspect our storm damages on our campuses - roofs, windows, floors, parking areas. We are also monitoring and discussing the flood damage to Micaville Elementary School and working on a plan for our students and employees.
Our principals are assisting at the shelters and helping schools locate students, families, faculty and staff using Class Dojo and Facebook pages to offer words of encouragement.
We ask that any of our employees who are able to assist us, if your home and neighbors are in pretty good shape, please go to the shelter at BRES and CRMS. We are now trying to organize schedules for our teams so they can take a break and rotate this work load. Any custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, teachers, teacher assistants and special area teachers.
Special thanks to Dr. Heather Cox, the Red Cross and many volunteers who organized the shelter at BRES. Just amazing!
We encourage students to reach out to each other. High school students who are helping and working, you are appreciated.
To our 420 employees and 2,100 students - STAY STRONG! Know that there is help on the way! We thank our power crews so much! When the electricity comes on, the wells are able to work. My family is like many - we have no power and water, but we are like our grandparents and parents' generation - water from the creek to flush toilets, boils the spring water and cook on the grill - we are camping and we are thankful for what we have: each other and our awesome community in Yancey County.