Rat problem presents upside for parents
Officials say remodeling will allow for upgrades
It might seem hard to put a positive spin on a rodent infestation in your child’s school, but Kirby High parent Helen Collins did it with gusto.
“The rats did us a favor,” she said Thursday night following a meeting Shelby County Schools held to inform parents what is being done to remedy the situation.
One of the perks, Superintendent Dorsey Hopson announced, was the district had the “opportunity to make some investments in Kirby while we’re remodeling.”
“When we go back to Kirby, we want Kirby to be better than it was,” Hopson said.
He wasn’t specific, and given it was constructed in 1980, the building is in overall decent shape. But the promise of upgrades was enough to leave parents hopeful about a situation that has displaced their children and will likely do so for months.
While many parents expressed optimism the district was doing its best and would make the most of a bad situation, they were still concerned about where their children would attend school for the time being, and the disruption it would bring to their education and their families.
Hopson told the crowd of several hundred at Hickory Ridge Middle School that it would be at least six to eight weeks before Kirby was ready, and it could be until the end of the semester. His preference, he said, would be to wait until January to return to the building to minimize disruption for students.
In that six-to-eight-week period, the school will be sealed off completely.
“What I’ve learned in the last couple of days,” Hopson - now an unwitting rodent expert - said, “is a hole the size of a quarter, a rat can get through.”
Pests moved in after renovation
The district learned two weeks ago,
he said, that a rat’s nest had been disturbed on the Kirby property during a project to renovate a greenhouse used by a career and technical education program. The rats fled into the building, he said.
The district cancelled school after students reported seeing rats in the building. Crews trapped about 80 rats and killed another unknown amount, Hopson said. School reopened after Labor Day with the blessing of health officials but with one area closed off due to an odor.
That odor, Hopson explained to the crowd, was of dead, decomposing rats.
“As they put down poison and pests move throughout the building, they may go to another area and die,” he said, painting a vivid picture of how the smell started to spread.
Hopson apologized to the families in attendance for the disruptions that had already taken place, but stressed that no one at the school or the district had done anything wrong.
He laid out options for the months ahead, including utilizing space inside Hickory Ridge Mall, the now-closed South Side High, or co-locating at another school in the area. He hopes to have a firm plan early next week.
Officials hope to keep students together
Each option comes with its own challenges, however, and Hopson said he’ll have to balance distance and the ability to start school as soon as possible with the community’s desire to keep everyone at Kirby together.
Kirby Principal Steevon Hunter said moving everyone to one location is also his priority. He is also committed to finding the quickest solution, and catching up students academically.
“We’re going to address all the lost time,” he said.
Collins, the parent of a Kirby freshman, said it’s important to her for the school to stay together, and for them to stay in Hickory Hill.
“They’re a family,” she said. “They’re a team.”
If the district decides to move students out of the neighborhood, Collins said, she would homeschool her daughter.
For parent Shannon Moore, the last week of having her freshman son home from school has been stressful. Her son plays football, and although school was cancelled, practice continued. Moore said she left work each day to go home and drive him to practice.
She said she knew she wasn’t the only parent having to balance work and children who are supposed to be back in school.
“Now you have to find other alternatives,” she said.
Moore said she also hopes the students can stay together.
Her son, Arnez Moore, said he know why they had students come back to school for two days just to cancel it again.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this long,” he said of the time away.
Sunseal Walls, parent of a student in the 10th grade, said she was encouraged by what district leaders had to say, but skeptical.
“I hope that they do well and get everything done fast,” she said.
No matter the speed, parents said, making sure the problem is permanently fixed is top priority.
“That’s the biggest concern,” Collins said. “Whether it takes three or six months, when they go back in the building, we know there’s no visitors in there with them.”
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.