PARADISE, Calif. — Paradise students are back in school for the first time since the Camp Fire destroyed most of the town.
“It feels really good. It’s good to be back in our hometown. So, they’re going to be commuting from Oroville to Paradise because they didn’t want to go to any other school but this one,” said Brooklyn Haynes, whose family lost their home to the fire.
“It is with anticipation and excitement that we welcome students back to the Ridge and our schools for the 2019-2020 school year,” a letter to Paradise parents from Superintendent Michelle John.
More than 80 people were killed when California’s deadliest wildfire swept through Butte County, and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. The fire burned in the parched Sierra Nevada foothills for two weeks, quickly spreading across 240 square miles before it was fully contained.
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Now, as students return to school, some are traveling to their hometown campus while others are in new schools entirely.
A former middle school is now the Paradise Ridge Elementary School, which combines former Paradise Elementary and Ponderosa students. Both schools were destroyed in the Camp Fire.
Seventh and eighth-grade students from Paradise Intermediate now have their own school on the Paradise High School Campus. Ridgeview High School Students will attend school in a portion of the old Mt. Ridge Campus.
Half of the district’s 4,200 students moved away after the fire and many of them now live miles away in Oroville, Chico, and Durham. Those students were bused in, but the district is still working on the details of bus routes and aims to expand them.
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“It’s really important. For everything that the kids have gone through, you know I don’t think people understand how much this impacts the kids,” said Jennifer Siemens.
Siemens also lost her home. She says this is where her kids need to be.
“For them to go to school and see their teachers, and see their friends and see those familiar faces, it’s everything,” Siemens said.
The district has worked hard to ensure that campuses are clean and safe to return to and Assistant Superintendent Tom Taylor said there is much to be thankful for.
“Without an amazing staff and without the support that has poured in from the nation, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing today,” Taylor said.
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