When Hurricane Helene descended on western North Carolina, the Mountain Pathways School was filled with water and mud. The storm washed away books, furniture, toys and school supplies from the small school built on the floodplains of Howard’s Creek.
Christina Sornito and her husband Jon Carter, both associate professors of anthropology at App State, drove out to the school to see the damage on Saturday after the storm. Their 4-year-old son attends Mountain Pathways.
“It just looked like Howard’s Creek became a river coming down the mountain,” Sornito said. “It just looked like it, since everything had been wiped out.”
The campus was ruined after the storm leaving the students, teachers and families of Mountain Pathways in limbo. So, they banded together to rebuild.
In the days following the storm, parents, families, faculty and former Mountain Pathways students volunteered to try to rebuild the school.
“It’s just having people here to sort out whatever we need done,” Carter said.
The Montessori school, located approximately three miles outside of Boone, serves about 55 students on its campus. Founded in 1987, the school aims to provide high-quality education regardless of racial, cultural, religious or economic background, according to the Mountain Pathways website.
“The parent community and the families that are able to kind of come out and help support is so different than a lot of schools that I’ve worked at in the area,” said Mountain Pathways Co-Director Jenny Darcy.
The campus has two buildings and an outdoor space. Pre-primary students — 18 months to 6 years old — attend classes in the Children’s House. The Norwood Building typically houses elementary and middle school students, Darcy said, but Mountain Pathways has been renting the space to Wildwood Agile Learning Community, a local homeschool group.
“Our Norwood building was hit really hard by flooding,” Darcy said. “The flooding went up to pretty much ceiling level. On our Children’s House, the flood damage is not as bad. It was probably seven inches at its maximum inside the building.”
Mountain Pathways’ ample outdoor space was wrecked by the flooding, leaving the playground in deep mud.
“We’ve had the creek access and there are big open fields and the beautiful trees,” Darcy said. “So we’re just trying to get back to that vision again.”
With the school’s campus in disarray, already limited child care in Boone is now an even larger concern. Carter and Sornito said getting the school safe for children again is a priority.
“We have to get this school running because it enables all the rest of us to do our jobs,” Sornito said.
She thinks the school will rebuild but said she is unsure of what the timeline will look like.
“Child care in the area has also been completely destroyed,” said Co-Director Tori Pendleton. “And we’re not going to be able to provide child care for who knows how long.”
Pre-primary Lead Teacher Caroline Culligan said “really it’s been wonderful” seeing the community response.
“We’ve had past students that are now, like 10 years old, bringing all of their friends,” she said. “We had like, literally 30 kids here yesterday mopping. So although it’s been sad, it’s definitely felt good knowing that we have such a wonderful community.”
The buildings are insured and administrators are applying for FEMA relief, Darcy said, but the majority of the immediate financial support is coming from the school’s GoFundMe, which has raised over $30,000 as of Oct. 15.
Despite the long road ahead, Darcy said she’s “feeling pretty hopeful right now.” The educator said Mountain Pathways is lucky to have such involved parents and caring community members.
“And you know, we’ve been wanting to do some restoration and renovation for a while,” she said. “So we’re kind of hoping to use it as a blessing in disguise and work from there. Our goal is to save the Children’s House and rebuild as soon as possible so we can get the children back in here.”
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Editor’s note: Jon Carter currently serves as Ella Adams’ thesis adviser.
