Page 28 - Report - IEKHS Hurricane IRMARIA IMPACT

HURRICANE IRMA
IEKHS Science Department: TALAPIA FARM aAHere are additional Photos aand HYDROPONICS

HURRICANES REBUILDING PHASE AND CLEAN-UP! A heartfelt, thunderous thank you go out to
the Federal Gov’t: FEMA, our local National Guard under the leadership of one of our assistant principals,
Sally F. Petty, now Colonel, a Guards Unit from Puerto Rico and several units from Stateside, who came to

our rescue. That heartfelt thank you is also extended to Department of Education’s employees:
maintenance, IEKHS faculty and staff, and other community stakeholders, that helped Ivanna Eudora
Kean High School become the beneficiary of great assistance, togetherness and team effort in getting the
school ready. Go RAYS! Of course the situation was not perfect. We experienced lots of complaints from
teachers about mold and mildew, but we not only came out of the hurricane resilient, we also survived the
mold issues that still plagues us today (2020).

Unfortunately, in 2017, decisions were made to sacrifice several areas as we assessed and determined that
we could accommodate the population of students and teachers in full session; resulting in the fact that
school could be resumed without the use of certain areas around the school. That included Music Dept.
and Career and Technical Area with the ROOF peeled back still in 2020; the old old counselors
and registrars’ shared room on the western end of the Administration Building; the old registrars’ room on
the eastern end of the Administration Building; and the one Health Classroom in the Gym. To date,
September 2020, two of these areas, those bolded and underlined above are still not fixed —
three years after the fact, and contributes highly to our dilemma of getting approved by Middle States as
IEKHS go through Accreditation in December of 2020. Also a hindrance is the fact that the whole

Administration Building has leaks coming from the roof that is becoming more and more apparent when
it rains. This needs immediate attention or all the work done this summer during the COVID-19 time will be
a waste of time.
28