KY Dept. of Education visits flood impacted school districts

Flood waters from last month's deadly flooding, damaging Burdine Elementary School in Jenkins

JENKINS, Ky. (WTVQ) – Last weeks special session resulted in $213 million being allocated to disaster relief and $40 million going to the Kentucky Department of Education for school cleanup repairs and wrap around services.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, KDE officials are visiting seven flood impacted school districts to see how they can help.

Flood waters from last month’s deadly flooding, damaging Burdine Elementary School in Jenkins.

“We had to remove all the flooring and have to get up all the mastic glue off the floor and whatever materials we had that were in the floor has been impacted. And our preschool classroom, which was a modular edition is going to have to be torn down and replaced” said Jenkins Independent Schools Superintendent, Damian Johnson.

The waters also destroyed the school’s playground.

Fortunately, the school’s electricity was not impacted. Officials are working tirelessly to clean up and repair what was lost to get students back into the classroom as soon as possible.

“These kids have had, this will be their fourth interrupted year, with COVID and now the flood on top of it” added Johnson.

The Kentucky Department of Education, paying a visit to Burdine Elementary Tuesday, assessing the damage and talking next steps with school officials.

“It’s stunning to see the depths of the damage and how much devastation really took place” said Dr. Jason Glass.

Dr. Jason Glass says it’s important for the KDE to see the impact of the floods first hand. he says new funding from legislatures will help in the recovery efforts

The Kentucky Department of Education will be back in Eastern Kentucky Wednesday visiting Breathitt and Perry County schools, Hazard and Jackson Independent Schools.