Muskogee Schools Ready For Students To Return

Tuesday, January 23rd 2007, 10:25 am

By: News On 6

After an unexpected break due to the ice storm, it is back to school Wednesday for students in Muskogee. News on 6 reporter Chris Wright has more on how schools there are gearing up to re-open.

The debris has been cleared, the power is back on and the cafeteria refrigerators are stocked with food. After a trying week and a half, Muskogee schools say they are ready for students to return.

Crews removed the last of the tree limbs from Tony Goetz Elementary on Tuesday, a day before students will once again walk through its doors. School officials say Muskogee's 14 schools have come a long way since the ice storm. After a lot of hard work, all of them will open Wednesday.

"Everything is on pace,â€ Maintenance Director Wayne Johnson said. â€œWe're monitoring the power grid to make sure it's stable before we can have school, and it is in good shape right now."

Clearing debris and restoring power were only part of the problem in Muskogee. Replacing food has also been an issue. The district's distribution center did not lose power, but most of Muskogeeâ€™s 14 schools did, so the schools had to throw out all of their food.

Nutrition director Kim Shelton says getting rid of the food was necessary in order to ensure children's safety, but seeing it all be disposed was not easy.

"Watching all that food being thrown away, that was a lot of food and a lot of money," Shelton said.

It was a lot of food that had to be replaced quickly. Shelton and her staff have been scrambling to make sure each school has the supplies it needs before Wednesday.

"Bread, milk, produce, all the cooler items, all the freezer items, we've had to replace everything," said Shelton.

Officials though are confident everything will get done, and the town can finally start to get back to normal Wednesday.

"I think all the students are ready to get back to school, and I think the parents are ready to return to a normal pace of life," said Johnson.

Muskogee school officials estimate that they threw out as much as $50,000 worth of food after the ice storm.