The sound of students’ laughter has returned to one corner of the O’Fallon neighborhood after St. Louis Public Schools officially reopened Yeatman-Liddell Middle School on Monday.
The district also reopened Washington Montessori Elementary and Beaumont High School, which is home to some of the district’s career and technical programs.
The three schools suffered roof and window damage after a tornado tore through parts of north St. Louis last May.
“It’s been exciting, joyful,” Principal Christopher Crumble said. “The kids are excited to be back. There’s a little bit of anxiety having experienced what we experienced in this building, but for the most part, we’re excited to be back.”
Students and staff had to hunker down in the building when the tornado blew through the region. Signs of storm damage are still visible across the O’Fallon neighborhood, with many homes and small businesses having blown-out windows and tarped roofs.
Yeatman-Liddell is the last remaining neighborhood middle school in north St. Louis and accepts children from across multiple neighborhoods that were in the path of the tornado.
The school has an enrollment of about 270 students, and according to Crumble, about 30% of students were directly impacted by the storm.
He said attendance has remained steady at about 250 students while they were relocated to Blewett Middle School, but he hopes that by returning to their home building, more students will report to school.
“It’s brought us some type of normalcy, some type of stability,” Crumble said.
Natasha Fultz said she is thrilled to have her son Xavier, a seventh grader, back in a school that’s closer to their home.
“It feels good,” Xavier said. “I like my old school, and I’m happy it still has my old teachers.”
Ahmah Gladney, a seventh grade math teacher, said she was happy that her students had the space and freedom to move around at Yeatman-Liddell. They were limited to the second and third floors at Blewett.
“It’s a breath of fresh air,” Gladney said. “It kind of felt eerie being in a space with everybody piled on each other, so it’s good to be in our own space.”
Four other schools are set to open sometime during the next school year. The district estimates that Hickey Elementary will reopen in August and that Ashland Elementary and Sumner and Soldan high schools will reopen in January 2027.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimated that the district suffered over $5 million in damages to its buildings. The district is in the process of hiring vendors to do repair work at the remaining four closed schools.
