Sheltering students after the storm

The Lawrence School District and the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) brought new meaning to a public-private partnership, when the public school district opened its middle school to 200 first- and second-graders of the private school after Hurricane Sandy.

HALB’s school building at 530 West Broadway in Long Beach suffered extensive damage to its grounds, according to Executive Director Richard Hagler, and to get the children back to school, he took the Lawrence district up on its offer.

“They are incredible people who care about education and children first and foremost,” Hagler said, referring to the administrators and faculty of Lawrence’s school

district.

Lawrence Superintendent Gary Schall called both Hagler and Long Beach Superintendent David Weiss after Sandy struck to offer assistance. Despite the fact that the Five Towns area and specifically Lawrence, where the middle school is located, didn’t have power Hagler met with Schall at the middle school two days after the hurricane.

“I have very good relationships with Richie Hagler and David Weiss,” Schall said. “I called both to see what we could do on the property, whether we needed portable classrooms. I said we would do whatever needs to be done.”

Administrators from both HALB and Lawrence met with the students’ parents in the middle school’s auditorium to discuss what the pans were going to be. Out of those 200 students, 95 percent are Five Towns residents, Schall said.

The HALB students began school at the middle school on Nov. 7. Using the school’s auditorium and old gym 10 instructional spaces were created, and office space and a copying machine area were used, Schall said. HALB staff was accommodated in administrator’s offices and other spaces that didn’t impact middle school instruction.

Calling the storm and its aftermath a “profound experience” for everyone affected, Schall said that he believes everyone involved did what they needed to do to help the children move forward after this disaster.

“We never want to see children go through a tragedy like this or for it ever to happen again, but if it does we will be there once again for our friends,” said Schall, who likened the experience to camp, where one makes new friends you hope to see again.

HALB students returned to their Long Beach school on Dec. 12. “It helped our school and enabled children to continue their learning with minimal interruption, which was tough enough to do,” Hagler said. “It was an incredible experience for us and our kids. We are back in our building. The kids are back learning and enjoying.”