De Sales School Vows to Rise Again After Relocating Site

by Marie Elena Giossi

We will rise again – that motto has been adopted by the community of St. Francis de Sales School, which has temporarily relocated from Belle Harbor to the former parish school of SS. Simon and Jude, Gravesend, as a result of damages sustained by the school building during Hurricane Sandy.
“Our theme for this year is ‘We will rise again’ because we will rise above this and be better people for it,” said Sister Patricia Ann Chelius, C.S.J., principal. “The most important thing is that we’re all together.” 
Sister Patricia’s smile greeted students and teachers as they arrived Nov. 26 for their first day of school at the SS. Simon and Jude site. Six school buses are transporting students and teachers from Belle Harbor to Brooklyn for the duration of the relocation.Sister Patricia hopes that the school community might be able to return home during the school’s 100th anniversary year in 2013. Administrators had no choice but to relocate the school community following the super storm.
St. Francis de Sales’ nursery, pre-kindergarten and first-grade classrooms were “totally ruined. Everything had to be thrown out, even brand new desks,” Sister Patricia said. Floodwaters destroyed the new gymnasium floor as well.
Good Shepherd School in Marine Park accommodated the school community for two weeks until a temporary site could be arranged.  Over Thanksgiving weekend, Sister Patricia, her teachers and maintenance staff, prepared the 86-year-old Gravesend building for the students’ arrival. “We moved desks, cabinets, books, everything we could,” to Brooklyn, she said. “The diocese sent painters and people to help us set up.”
By the end of the first week, 319 of the school’s 517 students were back at the school, and the principal had been in touch with most of the others who had not yet returned.
Seven families lost their homes and almost every family was affected to some degree, she said.
“Some are in California, Florida and the Hamptons. Many are in Bay Ridge. They’ve gone wherever they could get homes,” she said.
As for teachers and staff, she said nearly all were affected by the storm, and all are back at work.
Sister Patricia said the first day was emotional as children shared hugs with peers and teachers, some of whom they hadn’t seen since the storm swept through their tight-knit community. They also shared stories of what they had seen and what they had lost.
One boy told how the water in his home rose to his mother’s neck. Seventh graders spoke about rescuing relatives. One little girl announced that she’d lost her home – and that there were no more Twinkies, evoking a needed smile among those around her.