Teachers and administrators from the Clayton School District gathered in the Academy neighborhood in north St. Louis on Friday for a day of service.
Over 65 educators cut down overgrown weeds and helped pile up bricks from homes that were badly damaged from the May 16 tornado.
The neighborhood is home to some Clayton students who participate in the volunteer desegregation program, which allows them to attend schools outside their home district. Some staff members also live in the neighborhood.
“When we look at our mission — giving back to the community and being informed citizens, this aligns perfectly with what we want to model for our students and our community,” said Dan Gutchewsky, principal at Clayton High School.
The school day was winding down when a EF3 tornado touched down in Clayton on May 16. No one in the school district was injured. Some schools lost power, resulting in closures on the following Monday.
Gutchewsky said the district quickly pulled up students’ addresses on Google Maps and compared them against the path of the tornado to try to identify how many were impacted.
Social workers in the district then started doing outreach to assist with basic necessities to finding temporary housing for 50 families.
Ericka Harris, who lives in the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood and is a librarian at Wydown Middle School, said she’s seen how the storm stayed with students.
“I met rising sixth graders who talked about their experience in the tornado and how even when the sky gets cloudy now they get nervous and that for me … was kind of eye opening,” Harris said.
Carroll Lehnhoff-Bell, a Central West End resident and teacher, brought the idea to dedicate a day of professional development to tornado cleanup to Gutchewsky and Superintendent Nisha Patel.
Lehnhoff-Bell has been working on disaster recovery on Enright Avenue just north of Delmar Boulevard throughout the summer.
“As teachers, they are folks who share knowledge and information with others,” Lehnhoff-Bell said. “I hope they continue to do that. They're trusted, respected folks in our community. When they show up, people listen. When they share stories, people listen, so I hope they continue to do that.”
