Even if the coronavirus pandemic subsides and Hamilton County students return to their classrooms in August, East Brainerd Elementary School students won't.
The school was severely damaged by an EF3 tornado that struck Chattanooga on Easter Sunday and won't be usable until at least January 2021, district officials told the Hamilton County school board Thursday.
Initial repair cost estimates are at least $18 million, but it could end up costing more, said Justin Robertson, chief operations officer for the district.
"That number could go up as we tear down the damaged parts of the building. It's like an onion, there's no doubt that we'll run into things that we are not aware of that will have to be addressed," Robertson told the school board.
Insurance will likely cover the repair costs, and the board has already approved a contractor, The Christman Co., to lead the project, but that leaves about 1,200 students and their teachers without a school from at least August through December.
Three options are on the table including rezoning students to surrounding elementary schools like Bess T. Shepherd, Westview and Apison elementary schools or leasing and renovating an existing space to house the entire student body.
Some board members proposed using the old East Brainerd Elementary School, which the district sold in 2015 but has sat unused. Robertson said that most likely isn't feasible due to the current state of the facility.
Leasing church spaces and potentially splitting the school into two separate locations is also an option, officials said.
Delaying the opening of the new East Hamilton Middle School and using the new building to house the elementary school students is also an option, one that some board members said seemed the easiest of three difficult choices.
If East Brainerd Elementary students were sent to the new middle school, the new attendance zones for East Hamilton High and Ooltewah high and middle schools would also have to be postponed until middle school students could move into their new school in 2021.
Robertson said that the decision will be made quickly and he anticipates making a recommendation the week of May 4.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.