What to Know
- Fire broke out at Plainfield Memorial School on Aug. 14 and damaged the building and it won't reopen until December.
- Students will be temporarily placed at the former Killingly High School during repairs.
- School begins Aug/ 31.
Students from Plainfield Memorial School are starting the school year in a new school building today after fire damaged at least a dozen classrooms, the cafeteria and library around two weeks before the beginning of the new school year.
The community pulled together to make the transition for the students as easy as possible.
”When we came in on Monday the school hadn’t been used in quite a while and all the teachers were just in here, rolling up their sleeves, getting their hands dirty and really just trying to put everything together for the kids,” Michael Broughton, a Plainfield parent, said.
Parents and community members gathered outside the high school to greet and cheer students on as they arrived for their first day.
“They opened their hearts and their doors, and we’re doing our best to respect that and show them that we can add a little bit. When we leave, we hope they’re going to feel they have a wonderful learning space they might choose to use for another purpose,” Superintendent Kenneth DiPietro, of Plainfield Public Schools, said.
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To accommodate the students, the school day starts at 8:30 a.m., 15 minutes later than usual because the children will ride the same buses to Plainfield Central Middle School and then be bused from there.
The school district anticipates the renovations at Plainfield Memorial School will take about four months, so students could be back in the building by December.
