While construction continues on the THS campus and students are in portable classrooms, the decision to go virtual with impending weather will likely be a more frequent option.

Students to return to classrooms after storm

By Michael Butler

Tallassee City Schools is a little more than a week into the school year, yet a few of those days have already been virtual days - and it is not due to COVID-19.

The system went the virtual route on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 30 and 31 because of the threat of severe weather - Hurricane Ida.

The storm hit the Gulf Coast and made its way through Lousisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

"I've been saying this for the past year when we signed the contracts on the high school and knew we'd be in modulars, I'm not going to heavily stress out about it," Tallassee City Schools Superintendent Dr. Brock Nolin said of making decisions to have virtual days. "I was a little bit late making the call the other day. I was waiting on that last weather report."

Nolin

The new high school is not expected to be completed until the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

"I wouldn't chance even if the kids were inside a brick and mortar building, but definitely inside of modulars. If there were a tornado, then I'm going to pull the trigger. It is what it is until we get the safest building in Elmore County built with a storm shelter."

With coronavirus derailining traditional classroom exercises throughout the last school year, students now are beyond the learning curve when it comes to virtual instruction.

"It's not the best option. Face to face is best," said Nolin. "We'll be back in school on (Wednesday) and have our teachers and kids back on a regular schedule. Having a couple of days out will probably help with COVID. We'll do some cleaning. Separation is not a bad thing."