PIKETON, Ohio (WCMH) — Teachers and administrators at a Pike County school are preparing for the new school year, three months after a nearby school was closed due to fears of radiological contamination.
Shortly after Scioto Valley Local Schools District leaders closed Zahn’s Corner Middle School at the end of the last school year, it was determined that the building would not reopen until leaders were certain there was no threat to the health of students and teachers.
As a result, the fourth- and fifth-grade students set to attend Zahn’s Corner Middle School will now go to class at Jasper Elementary School. The sixth-grade students will go to Piketon High School.
The shift means there will be approximately 200 more students and 30 more teachers at the elementary school.
“We have enough space, just every space in the building is utilized,” said Krista Conley, the principal at Jasper Elementary School. “We’re going to take care of the kids. That’s our main focus. They’re the reason that all of this is happening and they’re the reason we’re here.”
The teachers from the middle school have not been permitted inside the building to retrieve their belongings. Many are relying on donations as they set up their new classrooms.
“The people that I know that give me something, I can look at them and say ‘thank you,’ but those people that are randomly dropping off things, I can’t, but please know they’re appreciated and will be used,” said Lori Burkitt, a fourth-grade teacher.
Zahn’s Corner Middle School sits near the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which produced enriched uranium from 1954 until 2001. The former plant is currently the site of a radioactive cleanup effort.
In May, the school was closed when testing revealed trace amount of enriched uranium in the building.
Shortly after the closure, the Department of Energy collected samples from the school and later determined there was no safety risk at the building. District leaders have expressed skepticism of those test results.
The DOE has agreed to pay for the independent third-party testing of the school, which is scheduled to begin in the fall.