When will Tampa Bay schools reopen after Milton? Depends on power

DADE CITY — Pasco County schools superintendent Kurt Browning took one look around the gymnasium at Pasco High School, his alma mater, and couldn’t disguise his reaction.

“Gosh, this is horrible,” Browning said Friday, shaking his head. “Horrible.”

Hurricane Milton had pulled a wall panel off an exterior wall of the gym, which in turn peeled off much of the roofing. The rain poured through, leaving piles of debris and pools of water on a now-warped basketball court just weeks before the season was set to begin.

School district crews from Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties began assessing their campuses for damage Friday, with a goal of trying to answer one urgent question.

Will classes start up again Monday?

The answer from all three districts: We don’t know. While officials said they understood the desire from students, parents and employees to have some concrete information, too many variables remained in play.

Those included the number of schools in use as shelters seven Hillsborough campuses were still occupied late Friday afternoon, along with six in Pinellas and one in Pasco. Access to power was another key factor.

More than half the schools in each county did not have electricity back Friday afternoon.

“A lot of folks are tired and they’re ready to get back to normal,” Pinellas superintendent Kevin Hendrick said during an online news conference. “So we’re looking forward to power and getting schools back open, whenever that may be, which is dependent on power.”

Officials said they intended to get information out to everyone as quickly as possible, perhaps as early as Saturday midday, to allow time for planning.

“It won’t be Sunday night,” Hillsborough district spokesperson Tanya Arja said. “We can’t wait that long.”

But exactly when remained up in the air.

Pasco assistant superintendent Betsy Kuhn said the storm’s after-effects continue to change the equation. While some areas dried out and cleaned up, Kuhn said, others began experiencing flooding as rivers crested and waters surged through roads and communities.

A team that had cleared Zephyrhills High School on Thursday, for instance, returned Friday to find flood water inside, said Mike Witfoth, senior crew chief in the district’s maintenance department.

Hillsborough crews had more to do, Arja noted, with 250 campuses to check out. Some had to wait for trees to be removed in order to gain access to the buildings.

Five Pinellas schools sustained roof or window damage during the storm, Hendrick said, adding that crews have been working nonstop through daylight hours to patch them and will continue through the weekend.

The worst, he said, was at Pinellas Park High School.

Hendrick said the district estimated Hurricane Helene caused between $15 to $20 million in damage to schools, and didn’t yet have a new estimate after Milton. They had initiated the process on relief through FEMA reimbursement and their own insurance after Helene.

So far, none of the districts reported any problems so severe as to keep any campuses shuttered for weeks, as occurred with two Pinellas schools after Helene.

But some of the damages will change the way schools operate.

Pasco High Principal Kari Kadlub said the gym’s demise will leave several teams, clubs and activities without a home for months. Another classroom building also lost its roof, displacing its classes, too.

“Overall, the program is going to take a large hit,” Kadlub said. “We have to figure that out.”

Times staff writer Divya Kumar contributed to this report.

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