7
“Second, we have an outstanding
school community. Our Board of
Education, staff members and
parents came together to do
whatever
it
took
to
reopen our schools and meet the
needs of our students, staff and
parents. Finally, we had a lot of
support from the City of
Washington and organizations
such as IASA. Three of the first
four people I spoke with in the
aftermath of the tornado were
superintendents, and city officials
worked tirelessly to assist us in
allowing contractors in to our
facilities and grounds to make
needed repairs.”
The schools’ role as the glue
that binds a community together
was never more pronounced than
in the days and weeks following
the tornado.
“I believe that it has shown the
community just how important the
schools are to everyone’s well-
being,” Martin said. “Our goal was to get students
back into school asquickly as possible so that it could
assist in two ways: to begin the process of getting
back to a normal routine…whatever that would look
like, and to provide a place for students to go so that
parents could begin the process of salvaging, making
plans for temporary housing and rebuilding homes. A
lot of the schools were used as gathering places and
a lot of coordination was done through support of our
individual staffs.”
Allaman said the whole experience of having
plans and lives altered in literally a few seconds just
reinforced his core beliefs that faith and family are
most important, that “things” can be replaced, but you
cannot replace people and pets. But he said it did
changehis viewas a school superintendent.
“I have a deeper understanding of how important
a school is to its community,” Allaman said. “Our
schools and churches became beacons of normalcy,
direction and hope to a community rocked by
disaster. I am certainly proud to serve as
superintendent and will continue to work side-by-side
withour community to support the recovery efforts.”
(Continued frompage 6)
“I have a deeper
understanding of how
important a school is to its
community. Our schools
and churches became
beacons of normalcy,
direction and hope to a
community rocked by
disaster. I am certainly
proud to serve as
superintendent and will
continue to work side-by-
side with our community
to support the recovery
efforts.”
— Central District #51
Superintendent
Chad
Allaman,
who
lost
his
Washington home in the
November 2013 tornado
