The 2024-2025 school year in Western North Carolina faced major disruptions due to Hurricane Helene, causing significant instructional losses. Ashe County missed 47 days, including 24 from Helene, while Transylvania County lost only 10 days. To aid recovery, the legislature allocated \$9 million for the School Extension Recovery Program, funding summer intensive learning for grades 4–8. Districts are addressing academic gaps and rising behavioral issues linked to trauma, with investments in mental health supports. Experts stress that recovery efforts must continue for years, as the storm’s compounded impact on students’ education and well-being is profound and ongoing.
by Kate Denning, Carolina Public Press July 8, 2025
While Helene’s impact on North Carolina varied across the region, the 2024-2025 school year was anything but ordinary for most Western North Carolina school districts and created significant obstacles to student learning.
Districts like Ashe County, in the state’s northwestern corner, missed upwards of 40 days of in-person instruction, and counties across the region are preparing to make use of the legislature’s $9 million summer learning initiative, the School Extension Recovery Program.
Recipient schools receive a minimum of $20,000 to be used for intensive recovery in math and reading for grades 4 through 8 this summer.
Transylvania, on the South Carolina line, was one of the luckier Western North Carolina districts, missing just 10 days due to Helene and an additional two for teacher workdays, said Carrie Norris, Chief Academic Officer for Transylvania County Schools.
Even though the area faced challenges like loss of communication and student displacement, the district’s ability to get back to in-person learning swiftly made it so the district did not have to make significant changes to the remainder of the school year.
“We eventually just decided that, since it was 10 days, we did not extend the school year and we just provided support for teachers as to how to make tweaks just in our curriculum pacing guide so we could continue on,” Norris told CPP.
“We did not make any major changes, because it was really kind of like just bad winter weather for us that we are pretty familiar with doing.”
Other districts were not so fortunate. Ashe lost 47 days from its typical instruction time, 24 of which were due to Helene, said Superintendent Eisa Cox.
Of the 47 days missed, 16 days were conducted virtually. While it was important to maximize instructional time, Cox said, virtual learning simply isn’t the same as being in the classroom.
Ashe County students had just 99 days of school without virtual learning, delayed start times or early release this year.
North Carolina schools always offer summer reading programs for grades 2 and 3 as part of the state’s Read to Achieve program, and Transylvania has offered high school credit recovery opportunities in recent summers. The focus on grades 4 through 8 will be a new addition to the district’s summer learning programs, Norris said.
Cox said Ashe otherwise would not have been able to offer any summer school programs outside of the mandated Read to Achieve program due to a lack of funding prior to the Helene recovery bill.
The $9 million provided for the School Extension Recovery Program are nonrecurring funds beyond 2025. Lance Fusarelli, distinguished professor of educational leadership and policy at North Carolina State University, said summer interventions are going to be critical and the initiative should continue through the summer of 2027 at least.
“You’re looking at up to two months of schooling where they were not in school five days a week, and you can’t just make that up in the course of a year,” Fusarelli said.
“I think the effects will be felt for several years, and it’ll take some serious efforts and some serious interventions to help those kids get caught up.”
It’s too early to know the impact Helene will have on test scores across the state, but Norris said Transylvania is seeing three of its four elementary schools outperform last year’s scores, which she credits to teachers making every minute count once school was back in session.
The biggest change to testing in Ashe was being unable to regularly test students throughout the year, Cox said. End-of-grade testing ultimately took place in both counties as scheduled despite the irregular term.
“When we normally would have had those checkpoints throughout the year, we didn’t have them necessarily at the same time, so this year was just very different than in the past,” Cox said.
“I think it’s important to realize that no child should be measured by a single test score, and that at the end of the day, we do have some time to catch kids up, and hopefully we have the grace in which to do that.”
Despite missing relatively few days due to Helene, Transylvania also had a challenging year due to a number of tragedies that resulted in the deaths of five students in the district.
Norris said those events coupled with Helene’s impact on older students’ ability to communicate with each other indicated a need for more emphasis on mental health care.
“For this coming school year, we have added a crisis care counselor at the high school level to support students more with small groups,” Norris said.
“And then we have also purchased two programs for the coming year. One is based on teaching students to identify their own behaviors and how to problem solve, and then another program that we’re implementing is a bullying program.”
Ashe is taking a similar interest in mental health care and its effect on learning in its schools. The loss of instruction time and additional traumas students experienced due to Helene has brought on an increase in behavioral issues, Cox said. The district recently received a grant to hire behavioral specialists to help teachers tackle behavioral issues in the classroom.
“Trauma hits different children differently,” Cox said.
“So it’s a matter of making sure that we are aware of what’s going on, what that looks like in each child, and ‘How can we put the right supports in place so that all children are successful?’ So we’ve been looking at meeting the immediate needs of families, the needs of the students while they’re in school — not just academic, but for the whole child.”
The storm’s impact on learning didn’t start or end with school closures, after all. Fusarelli pointed out the unique challenges Western North Carolina faced even before Helene, including poverty and housing and food insecurity, that became exacerbated. Many students likely experienced the loss of their homes, their family businesses or their loved ones.
“It’s one thing to have schools close for a period of time, but for most people, when something hits, they might have disruption, but they might not lose their entire livelihood,” Fusarelli said.
“Well, when these towns were wiped out, you have a lot of family owned businesses that were wiped out. And so what do you do when you don’t know where your next paycheck is gonna come from? All of those stressors — no matter how much parents try to shield their kids from stuff like this, you just can’t.”
But kids are resilient, and school districts and the legislature alike are doing their part to help them recover, he said.
Drawing comparisons between Helene and COVID-19’s impact on learning isn’t difficult. Students in Western North Carolina who were school-aged during the onset of COVID-19 and for Helene experienced a “perfect storm” of significant disruptions, Fusarelli said.
Helene reignited conversations amongst administrators about how such disruptions to learning impact students and how best to support them through those changes.
“We’ve talked a lot about that here at the end of the year, honestly, since COVID we are still struggling with student stamina and working through the hard things to get to the next part,” Norris said.
“There’s been a lot of years where we, and rightly so, have focused more on the mental supports. But we also have to give them the tools to persevere past the hard things that come along. So building up that stamina, staying true to what our goal is, pushing them in an appropriate way — those are all things that we’re going to talk about.”
Cox learned from COVID-19 how to deliver meaningful instruction even during situations that are far from ideal.
“When COVID happened and we shut down, we really had to make sure that we had purposeful learning for students, because if not, what’s the point of school?” Cox said.
“So our kids have a driving purpose, and we want to make sure that education met those needs. So we learned from COVID, which I think helped us to plan better for this time of crisis, even though nobody would have ever imagined we would have a hurricane in the mountains of North Carolina.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The content provides a factual and balanced overview of the impact of Hurricane Helene on Western North Carolina school districts, focusing on educational challenges and recovery efforts. It presents perspectives from various educators and officials without partisan framing or ideological language. The emphasis is on practical responses to natural disaster-related disruptions, funding for recovery programs, and student wellbeing. The article avoids polarizing topics and sticks to community and educational issues, resulting in a neutral, informative tone characteristic of centrist reporting.
SUMMARY: Catastrophic flooding in Texas has claimed 108 lives, including at least 24 children, with the death toll expected to rise. Search and rescue teams are combing through debris along the Guadalupe River, where floodwaters devastated an 80-mile stretch. Camp Mystic was hit hard, losing 27 campers and counselors, including young children remembered fondly by their families. Despite surge staffing by the National Weather Service, questions remain about the effectiveness of local alert systems, as some residents were not awakened by warnings. Officials recommend NOAA weather radios as a reliable alert tool during such emergencies.
The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Texas over the July Fourth weekend has surpassed 100.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-07-08 09:00:00
Tropical Storm Chantal caused four deaths and four tornadoes in North Carolina before moving off the New Jersey coast. Fatalities included an 83-year-old woman in Chapel Hill, a 58-year-old woman in Cedar Grove, and a man in Mebane, all found in vehicles during or after the storm. Two boaters went missing on Jordan Lake; one body was recovered, and searches continued. The state Department of Health could not independently verify deaths, deferring to local authorities. Tornadoes were confirmed by the National Weather Service across Lee, Chatham, Alamance, and Orange counties. By Tuesday morning, road closures decreased to 66 statewide.
(The Center Square) – Four deaths and four tornadoes in North Carolina are attributed to Chantal, the tropical storm that swept in Sunday and by Monday evening had scooted off the New Jersey coast.
The State Highway Patrol confirmed the death of an 83-year-old Chatham County woman in Chapel Hill; the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the death of a 58-year-old Person County woman in Cedar Grove; and a spokesman for Alamance County confirmed the death of a man in Mebane.
The bodies of each were found in vehicles trying to travel during or after the storm.
Two people boating on Jordan Lake in Chatham County went missing Sunday evening. One body was found on Monday. The search was suspended in the evening and resumed Tuesday morning.
The state Department of Health and Human Services, in an email to The Center Square, could not verify any deaths and referred requests to local lawmen.
Tornadoes have been confirmed by the National Weather Service in Lee, Chatham, Alamance and Orange counties.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the state Department of Transportation reported road closures were down to 66. One is a federal highway, three are state roads and 62 are secondary roads.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article presents factual reporting focused on the impact of Tropical Storm Chantal in North Carolina, including verified casualties, weather events, and infrastructure effects. It reports on the actions and statements of official agencies without expressing opinions or ideological perspectives. The language is neutral and straightforward, avoiding emotive or persuasive framing. The piece clearly distinguishes between confirmed information and ongoing investigations, reflecting standard journalistic practices. Overall, the article maintains an objective stance by simply conveying the facts without promoting or critiquing any political viewpoint or policy position.
SUMMARY: A WRAL investigation reveals concerning violations at some pet boarding facilities in North Carolina, including dog fights, staff reportedly high on drugs, pets dying from heatstroke, and poor documentation of incidents. Inspections by the state Department of Agriculture found issues like unsanitary conditions and extreme heat. Notable cases include a dog dying at Barkington in Leland and unreported injuries and deaths at Houndstown and Tail Wagon Ranch. The state inspects over 700 licensed kennels annually and can fine or suspend facilities but seeks more authority to close unsafe ones quickly. Pet owners are urged to research and visit facilities before boarding pets.
With summer travel in full swing, that can mean more boarding for family pets. WRAL Investigates went through state records for boarding facilities and found some troubling violations. It’s a reminder to do your due diligence before selecting a facility. Among the findings in Department of Agriculture inspection reports and violation notices were a dog fight without proper documentation of the incident, a kennel manager seemingly high on marijuana, and improper notification to the state after pet deaths.
Many of the findings related to conditions of the kennels, where inspectors sometimes found feces piling up, physical structures in disrepair, and temperatures that were too hot.
The most urgent violation, according to Dr. Patricia Norris, who oversees inspections as the state’s Animal Welfare Director, is “first and foremost, lack of water.”
This was noted to be the case at multiple kennels visited by Norris’ staff, including one in Huntersville where the inspector noted that “the kennel failed to provide the boarding animals with continuous access to water as 12 of the 15 dogs did not have any access to water. The remaining three dogs only had a trace of water left in the water receptacles.”
Among the violations WRAL Investigates found in state records were documents related to a dog’s death in May. They state that the dog had been at the Barkington in Leland and suffered from heatstroke after being in a sunny play area without continuous access to water.
