MILL CITY, Ore. — School in the Santiam Canyon School District was supposed to start on Sept. 4. But after homes were leveled by wildfires, school has been delayed almost a month.
Now, with Wednesday being the first day of school, the goal is to bring people and students together so they can reconnect and start to bring back some sense of normalcy.
Todd Miller, the superintendent of the Santiam Canyon School District, was busy on Wednesday.
“Well this is a first day of school like none other,” said Miller. “We knew that it was gonna be, with full distance learning for us. But the wildfires have compounded that.”
His district stretches from Mill City on Highway 22, through Gates, Detroit, Idanha, Marion Forks, up through the North Fork. These are areas that were affected by wildfires. Some families came out of it OK and were ready for distance learning, but others weren’t. He said the decision to start school was a difficult one.
“A lot of families weren’t ready and that’s OK. But what we wanted to do was start to provide that structure, start to connect kids, give them something to look forward to,” Miller said.
On Wednesday, teachers and staff took things in stride. Some of them did their work outside on the grass or in the gym.
But a big issue for a number of families and staff members was internet connectivity, something rural communities already struggle with, made worse by the fire.
“Communities that have had internet, some of them don’t have internet back,” said Miller.
Some families are still displaced and he said the need for hotspots have tripled, quadrupled even.
Miller said on the first day of school, he noticed students posted up on the school grounds outside with their computers.
“It really shows resilience in some kids to persevere through this,” he said.
It’s not just students and families. The need is there for teachers too.
“Our plan had been all along to have staff working from classrooms to where they could do this,” Miller said.
But they, for the most part, can’t because of smoke damage to the district’s buildings. Miller said ash and soot can be found all over, both outside and inside schools. He said walls, floors, ceilings, and air ducts need to get cleaned out in order for it to be a safe environment.
On top of that, he said they’re having trouble with their insurance company.
“We’ve learned insurance has denied our claim for cleaning because the fire did not originate on our property or in our buildings, therefore it’s not our smoke or our insurance claim,” said Miller. “We can’t afford to pay this bill as a school district.”
He said schools are hubs in communities. He wants the district’s building to be able to be utilized by the community for things like meetings between families and FEMA or Red Cross representatives.
“We need to provide a place for our staff to teach now, we need to provide a place where students can come in to get services, we need to provide a place to serve meals,” Miller said.
He said local and state officials, as well as senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, are supportive of the district, but waiting for the help to come might take a lot of time and right now time is of the essence. Miller wants the buildings to be cleaned soon so that the community can begin to heal.
“Two people, it’s Governor Kate Brown and President Trump are the only two people who have the power right now to expedite things.”
For now, Miller is giving families in his district some grace as people who call the Santiam Canyon home begin to rebuild and recover, one step at a time.
To help with that recovery, Miller said school counselors have been reaching out to families and kids to see how they’re doing. He wants to work with other agencies to ramp that up to see about the possibility of in-person counseling for students, staff, and their families.
In addition, Miller mentioned school-related, student body accounts that have been set up to help students whose families lost everything.
“We’re going to be contacting students that have lost everything and helping them replace those items that kids enjoy and bring them joy,” said Miller. “Help kids buy the musical instrument they love or if it’s the baseball and basketball shoes to be able to go play outside, those things that kids lost that they need to be a kid again.”
There are many ways to help, whether it’s donating to larger organizations like the Red Cross or more specific organizations like the Santiam Canyon Wildfire Relief Fund which funnels money directly to help families in the Santiam Canyon. But Miller said if people are interested in helping the district and replacing items for kids, they can mail a check to the Santiam Canyon School District. In the memo line, they can write: “Wildfire Needy Kids Fund.”