PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Students at the two Pinellas County schools that were badly damaged in Hurricane Helene are returning to the classroom Wednesday.

Both Gulf Beaches Elementary and Maderia Beach Fundamental K-8 sustained serious flood damage to the buildings and electrical systems. Unable to reopen, the Pinellas County School District has relocated all of the roughly 1,700 impacted students.

What You Need To Know

  • Gulf Beaches Elementary students are using entire Disston Academy Campus in Gulfport

  • Maderia Beach K-8 students are split between Walshingham Elementary and Osceola High for afternoon sessions

  • Before school care available at Tyrone Middle

  • Damaged schools could take a significant amount of time to repair

Maderia Beach Fundamental K-8 students will be split into two groups. Grades K-5 will attend Walsingham Elementary from 11:40 a.m. to 4:40 p.m., and middle schoolers will attend Osceola Fundamental High School from 12:09 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.

Before school childcare is available to those students at Tyrone Middle School.

All students from Gulf Beaches Elementary are being relocated to the Disston Academy campus in Gulfport. The roughly 70 Disston students will go to Lealman Innovation Academy in order to free up the entire campus for the displaced elementary school.

Gulf Beaches Elementary Principal Bob Kalach says he’s grateful that his school can continue to operate on one campus.

“We are still one school on one campus and that continuity adds to that positive student experience,” he said. “It all just feeds back into bringing the Gulf Beaches community back as a whole.”

Teachers and school staff have spent the last two days at the Disston Academy campus setting up their temporary classrooms and helping to make it a welcoming environment for the young students.

Jack Madley, who has a kindergartener at Gulf Beaches, says he’s pleased with the relocation plans the district has put in place and says they’ve been communicating well with parents.

“I think getting people back into school within a couple of days was pretty impressive considering how bad the damage was,” he said. “Nothing but praise for the people who were working hard behind the scenes to make it happen.”

District officials don’t have a timeline on when the two schools will be repaired and when students will be able to return to their original campus. The repair process could take months.