Amidst losses and adjustments, Odyssey School reopen its doors with innovative solutions

BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — One school in Buncombe County was able to return to the classroom on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

The Odyssey School, an independent art school, had to get creative to come back.

We’re going to continue to be flexible in our schedule,” Head of Schools Dr. Eric Howard told News 13. “We’re going to continue to go slow. Today is a light day. Today is about play, talking, embracing each other and trying to provide that support for everyone in this.

That is not the only thing the Odyssey School had to be flexible about.

“Totes were hard to come by,” Odyssey Facility Manager Clayton Hufford said. “Porta-potties were hard to come by.”

To bring students back, Odyssey did it themselves.

“Our great facilities manager said we can build a sink and get to school,” Dr. Howard said. “The most important thing was getting kids back in the building.”

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Flushing water coming from what the city can supply. The sinks are being refilled with wells and drinking water.

“Now, we have really clean water for kids to wash their hands in,” Dr. Howard said. “We also have hand sanitizer to make sure they knock off any extra germs… We just keep refilling this. We’ll be refilling this all day. We also have two 275-gallon totes. I never thought in my education career that we’d be worried about flushing toilets. It’s such an essential thing we take for granted.”

While students had enough to make it back to class, they are still missing a lot. One thing some students love most, their playground, will be unusable for weeks and maybe months.

However, that is far from school’s biggest loss.

We lost our beloved Shirley Rotolo,” Dr. Howard said. “She’s an amazing kindergarten teacher. She was trained by one of the founders and earliest teachers here at the Odyssey School.”

Through the losses and adjustments, staff are focusing on learning and processing. Help from the outside is aiding that process.

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Mrs. Rotolo’s kindergarten class got a surprise on their first day back without their homeroom leader.

That was such a great call to get about those teddy bears coming in for the kids,” Howard said with a smile. “Our message is ‘go slow.’ You have multiple things to process. Go slow. Kids are super resilient. They know what’s going on. They’re going to be processed in a multitude of ways. We’re going to continue to hug the kids, fist bump the kids, high five the kids, and we’re going to continue to encourage them to learn. I’m going to do anything I can to support these kids no matter what. I love this work. I love my students. I love this school.

The tuition-based institute still has damage to many parts of its campus and is not afraid of asking for outside help.

“I’m not going to shy away from any support,” Howard said. “What we need is people to continue to come check on us. There will still be tree work.”

To donate to help the Odyssey School with its repair and clean-up efforts, click here.