USD #473 Ripped by Tornado
It has been a while since a tornado chose a perfect path through Chapman KS. and destroyed all of the schools in town --- but it seems to everyone that it has been one long drawn-out day.
Phase one was the short-term recovery -- having school -- This was accomplished but required many temporary mobile classrooms, using the Catholic Church Parish Hall, and portions of damaged buildings that were repaired. Through hard work determination and dedication, school started on schedule on August 18th.
We are proceeding with definite plans about specific buildings. All schools in Chapman will be rebuilt. The High School and the Middle School will use the existing sites when the ruble has been removed. The Elementary School will be rebuilt in Chapman on a site out of the flood plane North and West of the existing site. We call this phase our Extreme Makeover of Chapman Schools. A positive note is the District Gym at the Chapman Middle School site was saved as well as certain portions of the High School.
A construction technology home that was built by students was for sale. Instead, the house was used as the temporary high school office.
A downtown Chapman medical office, 413 N. Marshall was offered by the Abilene Memorial Hospital, to be used as the District Office.
