Monday night, the final pod is in place to form Louisa County's modular high school. Now the move-in begins to get teachers and students back in class full-time by February 1.
The modular school covers the parking lot of the county's high school, which was condemned after August's earthquake. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) inspectors are on-site, tallying up a final damage total so the schools can get some cash from the feds.
Moving crews are carting tables, chairs, and boxes of books into Louisa County's new modular high school. More than 100 trailers connect to form clusters of 99 classrooms, a library, physical education room, and cafeteria.
Contractors put the final pod in place late Sunday. Louisa County High School Principal Tom Smith said, "Making sure they're hooked up to electricity, hooked up to the plumbing, getting the ramps and stairs put on."
Since September, high school students have been sharing space in the middle school. Smith stated, "Everybody's excited to get their own space, have their own classroom, and get us back to a high school over here."
But just across the parking lot from this buzz of progress stands the condemned reminder of August's earthquake.
Louisa County Schools Superintendent Deborah Pettit said, "In a way, I'm very sad, because adjacent to them is our school that we were so proud of."
Pettit says FEMA officials are on-site helping the schools find every expense caused by the quake. Engineers are still determining the exact amount of damage at the high school and Thomas Jefferson Elementary.
Previous estimates put the total between $30 million and $40 million. A final amount should be ready to submit to the feds within a month.
"That's an on-going process - perhaps a bit slower than we'd like. But, as you can tell, we do things quickly around here in Louisa," Pettit said.
For now, the county is celebrating a Christmas miracle that this puzzle of pods has come together in a month's time.
Pettit said, "This shows tremendous progress for us. It shows hope for the future and the can-do attitude that seems to permeate Louisa these days."
Ultimately, the county will have to pay 9 percent of the total beyond what insurance covers to repair or rebuild. High school students are on track to return to school five days a week starting February 1. The school day will be extended - students will go from 8 a.m. to just about 4 p.m.
