Start of school different for PCHS

PHIL CAMPBELL – The first day of school will look quite different for Phil Campbell High School students this year.

Next Friday, instead of reporting to classrooms, students will be reporting to three local churches for class while construction crews finish up work on the new PCHS, which is slated to be complete after Labor Day.

Franklin County Schools Superintendent Gary Williams said students in grades 7^th – 8^th will report to Mt. View Baptist Church; students in grades 9^th – 10^th will report to Phil Campbell First Baptist Church; and students in grades 11^th – 12^th would report to Phil Campbell Church of God.

Williams said all schedules will remain the same with classes starting at 7:50 a.m. and ending at 3 p.m. each day. Breakfast and lunch will be brought to the churches from the cafeteria.

He also said bus routes would be normal and would let students off at the churches instead of the school campus.

“Basically, everything will be the same except for the location of classes,” Williams said.

“This is just something we are having to do until the school is finished after Labor Day.

“We appreciate each one of these churches being willing to house our students for the next several weeks. It’s a great example of the community continuing to pull together and help one another through this rebuilding process.”

Adapting to new circumstances is nothing new for the students and faculty of Phil Campbell High School, who have been displaced since the April 27, 2011 tornado damaged the school beyond repair.

Students spent the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year at Northwest-Shoals Community College’s Phil Campbell campus.

When school resumed in August 2011, PCHS students and faculty resumed classes in mobile units set up on the high school campus, and they have continued to use the mobile units up until this past May.

“I know the students and faculty are more than ready to get into the new school,” Williams said.

“We are just glad that we are far enough ahead of schedule that they will be able to get in the school in just a few weeks instead of it being several more months.”