The California State Superintendent was in San Diego County Friday, touring flood-damaged schools in Spring Valley.
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond's first stop was Bancroft Elementary, a school that was badly damaged by the Jan. 22 storm. About 250 students in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District were displaced after last week’s storm.
“We had some drains back up. We had some water coming into the classrooms, seeping into the carpets,” Spring Valley Academy Principal Liz Loether said.
She said what’s left behind at her campus after the rain and flooding are a few sandbags, but other schools had it even worse. Bancroft Elementary was so badly damaged that the entire student body — roughly 450 students — was temporarily moved to Spring Valley Academy.
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Thurmond and his team toured San Diego County flood areas Friday morning, concentrating on schools in the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District.
“Literally, they looked out their windows, and they saw water rushing, and they had to walk through some of the water to get to the multipurpose room,” Thurmond said.
They not only brought resources for students, staff and their families, they brought a plan.
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“We can’t control what mother nature is going to do, but we can control how we prepare for it and how we respond to it,” Thurmond said.
He said Spring Valley Academy was already on schedule to be modernized through a bond program, but now there’s an opportunity to do even more.
“We talked about the future, how to build infrastructure around school campuses that might make this campus less at risk for future flooding,” Thurmond said.
Loether anticipates Bancroft students will be able to go back to their school in the next few weeks. Thurmond said he’s currently working on a state bond program that would give $16 billion towards modernization schools, if passed.
