SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Students at a nearly 100-year-old Delaware County school were finally able to resume classes Monday morning, two weeks after it was devastated by an after-school fire.
The blaze ripped through Springfield’s St. Francis of Assisi School on Oct. 7. Fortunately, it happened after school hours, and no one was injured.
“It was devastating, absolutely devastating,” said Christina Carlin, who has taught first grade at St. Francis for the last 10 years. “All your entire teaching career and all the kids’ stuff gone in a matter of minutes.”
But Monday morning, pre-K through third-grade students and teachers were able to return to class, thanks to space made available by Saint Kevin Parish, which is located right down the road.
“It’s amazing,” said Carlin. “We never thought that we would get everything that we needed to start today. We’ve been working 10 hours a day, all the teachers, and it came together. I know it’s cliche, but it really does take a village because we would have never been able to do this by ourselves.”
Carlin said this act of hospitality has already been a blessing for them as well as Saint Kevin, whose school facility has been closed for more than a decade.
“They welcomed us with open arms,” she added. “A lot of parents and Saint Kevin’s alumni saying we are making their school alive again, which makes us happy.”
Not having kids in school for the last two weeks has taken a little bit of adjusting for parents like Mike Higgins, but he said the school community rallied around each other.
“A lot of the parents set up play dates so that they could go to the playground to keep the kids together,” he said.
Higgins’ 4-year-old daughter Liliana was eager to get back to school.
“I asked her who she was most excited to see today, and she said her teacher, which was nice,” he said. “It’s going to be great for her to get back in and be with her friends and learning. I can only do so much at home.”
St. Francis second-graders as well as fourth- through eighth-graders have been able to continue school at one of their buildings that was left untouched by the fire.
St. Francis principal Nicole Hamilton said its pre-K through third grade will call Saint Kevin home for the next few months.
“We’re in the process of getting classroom modules put on the St. Francis campus, so hopefully we can all be back together,” she said. “We don’t want to stay separate for however long it takes us to rebuild. We want to get back together.”