Nearby: Students Return to Sandy-Damaged East Rockaway JSHS

With the post-Sandy restoration work completed, approximately 600 East Rockaway Junior/Senior High School students returned to their home on Monday.

Since floodwaters from the Oct. 29 storm damaged their school, students had been attending classes in Baldwin at schools that had been previously closed.

“Our maintenance staff worked tirelessly to get East Rockaway Junior/Senior High School up and running before the end of the year. Our seniors can now spend the last two months of their K-12 careers here and enjoy a special sendoff on graduation day,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Roseanne Melucci, who will be graduating her final class at East Rockaway after announcing her retirement earlier this year. “There’s a buzz in the building and everyone is excited to get back to the way things were.”

In addition to restoration work, every classroom at the ERJSHS complex underwent thorough cleaning. FEMA funding, combined with private insurance, is expected to cover the majority of the storm’s damage to the school, as well as other East Rockaway facilities affected by the storm.

Students at Rhame Avenue Elementary School temporarily attended classes at nearby Centre Avenue, which was relatively unscathed and reopened shortly after the storm. With much of the hardship now behind them, students, teachers and staff members alike returned to their classrooms with renewed enthusiasm.

“Being apart from my school – which is like home to me– has been difficult these past few months,” junior Taylor Clarke said. “I have been anxiously awaiting the moment when I can walk through those familiar hallways once again. Things are finally returning to normal for me and being able to finish my junior year ‘at home’ is an indescribable feeling!"

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“We are all happy to be back and things are running smoothly ... as if we never left,” ERJSHS Principal Joseph M. Spero said. “I am extremely proud of the way students, parents and staff handled this adversity.”

“In addition to having to adapt to a new building in another town, many of them experienced damage to their homes, and in some cases displacement,” Spero added. “Yet they refused to let it negatively impact their attitude or their studies and they remained a cohesive, productive group of students.”

By forgoing the scheduled February mid-winter recess, the district recouped all of the instructional time lost in the days that immediately followed Sandy. Extracurricular activities continued, including participation in musical productions and athletics.

Faculty and students will soon be preparing for end-of-year exams, followed by the Class of 2013 graduation exercises, which will take place in the ERJSHS auditorium  – keeping with a longstanding tradition.

"The return to East Rockaway High School is very emotional for me,” senior Lindsay Dower said. “I am so excited to spend my final months of high school in the building in which I grew up.”

“My experiences over the past few months have led me to reflect on the lasting memories made during the last six years,” she added. “I am more appreciative of the school community culture here, more so than when I last roamed these hallways. It’s a grand return and quite overwhelming for all of the students and staff of East Rockaway."