Kanawha County students return to school for the 2024-25 school year

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — Students in Kanawha County hopefully have their backpacks and pencils with them, and all their summer homework done as schools in the county are back in session as of Friday.

This is also the first time in eight years that students at Clendenin Elementary School get to learn in their own building and not in portable, temporary facilities.

That community has been without an elementary school after the old one was severely damaged in the deadly 2016 floods that ripped through the state.

“It represents final closure of the 2016 flood,” Angel Gurski, principal at Clendenin Elementary School, said on Thursday following a ribbon-cutting ceremony . “Many of the staff were also flooded in their personal homes and it just feels like we’ve finally made it.”

This is the second year for students at Herbert Hoover High School are out of temporary classrooms. Their previous building was also destroyed in those 2016 floods.

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