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Oakfield Middle School students returned to a very different school this year - and a very different community.
Just six weeks after a tornado devastated the village east of Waupun, the kids are back in school and the teachers are back in front of the classrooms.
But school - and life - is anything but normal in Oakfield. The heavily damaged Middle School is closed, and students are being taught in hot, crowded temporary structures erected alongside the high school.
The
houses that once filled the lots near the Middle School are mostly gone,
with little but tarp-covered basements, lone fireplace structures, a few
water pipes, and bare and bent trees left behind. The American flag still
flies outside the old school, but the flagpole is bent over as if weeping.
The school's gymnasium has no roof or west wall, both of which were ripped
off and deposited throughout the countryside.
The community is buzzing with activity as construction workers patch and repair the houses that survived enough to be salvaged. Other houses lie like dead soldiers on a battlefield, waiting for someone to bury them.
Feeling of survival
There is a feeling of survival - incredibly nobody was killed in the July 18 tornado that cut a path through the heart of the community. And there is a surge of regeneration as the community slowly rebuilds. But there's also a lurking sense of shock.
"People are tired, almost exhausted, they've been operating on adrenaline for so long," said Superintendent Joe Heinzelman.
For the teachers and school support staff of Oakfield, their mission has been clear all along: Help restore some sense of normalcy to the children's lives.
That's been a challenge. But the school staff - and entire community - have been meeting challenges head on since July 18.
Anyone in Oakfield will tell you that the tornado which tore the town apart also brought it together.
In the hours and days immediately after the tornado hit, school staff joined hundreds of other volunteers in helping clean up debris and comfort and aid those who lost their homes.
"I can still vividly see all the teachers going through the community, helping to clean up," said Middle School-High School Principal Paul Dix.
"I know at least three-quarters of our teachers were here volunteering," added Al Messner, a high school math teacher.
They also helped make sure the educational and emotional needs of the children in the community were being met.
The school district quickly made arrangements to re-start summer school the Monday after the Thursday tornado - and extend it for an extra two weeks.
"It was really important because the kids needed to have a routine," Heinzelman said. "And they needed to have a place to go."
Many of those summer school classes involved field trips out of town, to get the kids away from the stress in the community, he said.
Teachers donated time, money
Many of the teachers, he said, donated their time or contributed their extra summer school pay to the community rebuilding fund. Others helped operate a day care center in the elementary school - a facility designed to give children a safe place to go while the parents turned their attention to rebuilding their home and their lives.
The next challenge was to prepare for the regular school year. Although the Elementary School, on one edge of town, required about $50,000 worth of repair to fencing, wiring, air conditioning and scattered structural damage, it was able to reopen on time. The high school, on the other edge of town, was not damaged.
The Middle School, in the center of town, was damaged so badly the district decided not to repair it for now. Officials are hoping to apply the insurance money - estimated to be in the $800,000 range - toward construction of a new school. A referendum on building a new school will be held November 5. If the referendum passes, the old school will be torn down.
In the meantime, the district had to scurry to find a place to educate the 115 Middle School students.
They located two temporary buildings that the Oconto Falls district was selling for $15,000 each and bought another from a Fond du Lac dealer for $20,000. The buildings had to be dismantled, transported to Oakfield and reassembled. Crews had to run gas, water, sewer and electricity to the site.
"We put six weeks worth of work into three weeks to get these up in time," Heinzelman said. "It was phenomenal."
The Sunday before school opened, the area outside the high school was buzzing with teachers, school staff, students, parents, business people and other citizens moving in desks, cabinets, books and supplies, cleaning and organizing the new temporary buildings, which include seven classrooms and the library.
"It was just incredible," said Mike Fingerhut, who teaches U.S. History and Language Arts at the Middle School.
"What we have is people saying we'll make it work. That's the attitude here," Heinzelman said.
The temporary buildings are dark, hot, crowded and uncomfortable. The constant noise of power saws is piercing. But you don't hear teachers or students complaining.
Happy to have a school
"I was expecting doom and gloom, but I'm surprised and amazed at how well the students have adjusted," Fingerhut said. "We're just happy to have a place."
"It's remarkable how quickly the kids adapted," Dix said. "I haven't adapted to it yet, and I've had a lot more time to do it."
Dix and Heinzelman said the ordeal would be much harder on everyone if it weren't for the positive attitude and leadership of the Oakfield teachers.
"One of the nice things is that we have an experienced staff who are just fantastic teachers," Dix said. "They have a genuine concern for these kids."
"They're just super," added Heinzelman. "But I would have told you that even before all of this."
Superintendent Joe Heinzelman stands beside the "open air" gym at the old Middle School. The tornado ripped off the roof and west wall and caused extensive structural damage throughout.
Photo by Bill Hurley
Posted September 3, 1996