PCHS demolition set

Phil Campbell graduate Lisa Hall and her two sons, Ethan and Eli, search for mementos amongst the rubble at PCHS, which will be torn down on Wednesday.

For over 50 years, Phil Campbell High School has stood tall and proud – a pillar of the community and a symbol of the pride and closeness the people of this small town share.
But in one day’s time – in a matter of minutes – that once proud symbol was ravaged and ransacked by the deadly tornado that destroyed most of the town.
As it stands today, the school has now morphed into a different symbol.
Even though the windows are shattered and ruined, the bricks are crumbling and falling away from the weathered exterior, the classrooms are in shambles and parts of the school have been reduced to rubble, the building still stands – just like the people of Phil Campbell.
The people of this city have seen their homes shattered, their hopes crumbled, their lives in shambles and they have been shaken to their very core, but they remained standing.
The residents of Phil Campbell have pressed forward in the near fifteen months since that horrific day, and they are continuously taking steps toward rebuilding a bigger and brighter future for their beloved town.
But with progress taking place all around it, the residents couldn’t help but notice that their school, their constant symbol and source of pride, was being left behind on this road to recovery.
For over a year, the Franklin County School Board has trudged through the process of securing funds for a brand new school.
Superintendent Gary Williams said they haggled with insurance companies that wanted to salvage three of the schools’ buildings; they sifted through the red tape tied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency funds; they sought help from state legislators and they went back to the drawing board more times than they care to remember.
But finally, after all this time, the town of Phil Campbell will receive the new symbol they have longed for.
On Wednesday, the demolition process at the high school will officially begin and the last major reminder of the darkest day in their town’s history will begin to transform into the new Phil Campbell High School and the newest pillar of the community.
Williams said that even though this is something he and the rest of the school board have fought for, it will be bittersweet when the old buildings actually come down.
Williams taught and coached at PCHS from 1991 until 2001 and then served as assistant principal in 2002, so he counts himself among those who have many fond memories tied up in the school.
“Coming up on the demolition, I definitely have mixed emotions,” Williams said. “We worked hard to get to this point, but the day I got the call from the contractor about setting a firm date for the demolition, I was actually standing in the gym where I spent those 11 years as a coach and teacher. It was like it really hit me at that point that the school, the gym – all of it would soon just be a memory.”
Phil Campbell resident Lisa McDougle Hall came up to the school on Thursday to sift through the rubble and salvage a few bricks she planned to keep as mementos from the days she spent in the school before she graduated in 1990.
She also brought along her two boys, Ethan and Eli, who attend Phil Campbell Elementary. Even though her sons will never walk the same high school hallways as she did, she wanted them to have a piece of the school as well.
“It’s sad for me to think that they will never get to experience being part of this school,” Hall said, “but I want to make sure they know that it was a great place.
“It will be neat to tell them stories about all the pep rallies in the gym, and where my favorite classrooms were and about the benches where we hung out – just things about the high school that made it special.”
Lucas Gilbert, a 2003 PCHS graduate and current high school biology teacher and assistant football coach, said some of the best days of his youth were spent on the PCHS campus either in the gym playing basketball, seeing friends in class or winning games on the football field.
“I was in that building from the fifth grade until I graduated,” Gilbert said. “Being a smaller school and somewhere I spent a lot of time, you get attached to a place like that. It’s like a home away from home.”
But Gilbert said he understands its time for the community to move forward.
“It’ll be sad to see the building torn down, but I really think the sadness for most people came when it first happened,” he said. “When the tornado came through and everything was destroyed, we knew then that the school wasn’t ever going to be the same. I think most people now are looking forward to starting fresh and having a new school.”
Hall agreed that a fresh start was needed.
It was hard to drive by the building every day when I was taking the kids to school and see the busted windows and all the destruction,” she said. “In a way, I think it’s sadder to see the building just sitting here wasting away than it just being gone altogether.”
Assistant superintendent Donald Borden said he’s noticed similar sentiments in the community.
“I graduated from Phil Campbell in 1974 and I know many other people who are graduates from there as well, but most people I have spoken with are just ready to get going on the project,” Borden said. “This is the best thing to do for our students, and I think people know that.”
Williams said he will be on hand Wednesday when the walls start to come down and he’s finally able to witness this new chapter in Phil Campbell’s educational history.
“This school is going to be safer, more functional and an all-around better learning environment for our students, who have been our main priority throughout this whole process,” Williams said. “It will be something the town can truly be proud of because, really, the pride this town has was never actually tied up in the brick and mortar of the school building – it’s a pride in the people and traditions associated with the school, and that will carry over into this new building too.”