What’s keeping Watauga County schools from heading back to class as western North Carolina recovers from Helene? [Video]

Communities across the state are continuing to rebuild after Helene devastated the southeast. And when it comes to school, many kids are still out of class.That’s certainly the case for students in Watauga County. Leslie Alexander is superintendent of Watauga County Schools. She says she is thankful that all 4,710 students and 810 faculty/staff members have been accounted for. Though, she says the timetable for when they’ll return is still uncertain. “I don’t think anybody knew exactly how bad it was going to be. Originally, on Thursday, we had scheduled an early release day,” she said.She says in the days leading up to the storm, conditions changed quickly. “When our weather team got up and drove the roads that morning, it was already starting to get to look like it was going to get bad. So we ended up canceling school,” she said.She says class has been canceled ever since.In …