When will Tampa Bay schools reopen after Milton? It depends on the power

DADE CITY – Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning took a look around the gymnasium at Pasco High School, his alma mater, and he couldn’t hide his reaction.

“This is horrible,” Browning said Friday, shaking his head. “Horrible.”

Hurricane Milton had removed a wall panel from an exterior wall of the gym, which in turn removed much of the roof. The rain poured down, leaving piles of debris and pools of water on a now warped basketball court just weeks before the season began.

School district crews in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties began assessing damage on their campuses Friday, trying to answer a pressing question.

Will classes start again on Monday?

The response of the three districts: We do not know. While officials said they understood the desire of students, parents and employees to have concrete information, there were too many variables at play.

Among those included the number of schools in use as shelters, seven Hillsborough campuses were still occupied Friday afternoon, along with six in Pinellas and one in Pasco. Access to power was another key factor.

More than half of the schools in each county were without power Friday afternoon.

“A lot of people are tired and ready to get back to normal,” Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick said during an online news conference. “So we’re looking forward to having the power and reopening the schools, whenever that happens, which is up to the power.”

Officials said they intended to get the information out to everyone as soon as possible, perhaps as early as noon Saturday, to allow time for planning.

“It won’t be Sunday night,” Hillsborough County spokeswoman Tanya Arja said. “We can’t wait that long.”

But exactly when it remained in the air.

Pasco Assistant Superintendent Betsy Kuhn said the aftermath of the storm continues to change the equation. While some areas dried out and cleared, Kuhn said, others began to experience flooding as rivers rose and waters rose over roads and communities.

A crew that had cleaned Zephyrhills High School on Thursday, for example, returned Friday to find floodwater inside, said Mike Witfoth, senior crew chief for the district’s maintenance department.

The Hillsborough crews had more to do, Arja noted, with 250 campuses to check. Some had to wait until the trees were removed to be able to access the buildings.

Five Pinellas schools sustained roof or window damage during the storm, Hendrick said, adding that crews have been working around the clock to fix them and will continue through the weekend.

The worst, he said, was at Pinellas Park High School.

Hendrick said the district estimated that Hurricane Helene caused between $15 million and $20 million in damage to the schools, and he still didn’t have a new estimate after Milton. They had begun the relief process through FEMA reimbursement and their own insurance after Helene.

So far, none of the districts have reported problems severe enough to keep campuses closed for weeks, as happened with two Pinellas schools after Helene.

But some of the damage will change how schools operate.

Pasco High Principal Kari Kadlub said the gym’s disappearance will leave several teams, clubs and activities without a home for months. Another classroom building also lost its roof, also displacing its classes.

“Overall, the program is going to be a huge success,” Kadlub said. “We have to find out.”

Times writer Divya Kumar contributed to this report.

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