The Gardner Edgerton School District sprung into action last week for about 80 students impacted by the city of Gardner’s decision to condemn the Aspen Place apartment complex.
Superintendent Brian Huff said he was on the scene for three days after the condemnation order, helping residents pack and move out their belongings.
When asked why, Huff said, “Because I can,” as he loaded residents’ possessions in his truck to help residents get out by the 48-hour move-out deadline decreed by the city.
The city condemned the property on May 6, citing serious health and safety hazards related to issues with the neighborhood’s water, sewer and road systems after a Fire District #1 ladder truck sunk into the ground during a 911 call.
“This is an awful time with prom, graduation,” Huff said. “These people right now need our help. This is like a tornado coming through and just leveling an entire neighborhood.”
The school district implemented the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that protects students facing homelessness, Huff said, noting that all impacted students qualified for assistance.
Last Wednesday, district officials were also on hand to assist families with signing up for assistance at an event at Grace Baptist Church.
“McKinney-Vento students that are displaced due to economic hardship are eligible for support with transportation for the remainder of the school year,” said Ben Boothe, assistant superintendent of educational services for the school district.
Transportation assistance was also provided for students attending last Saturday’s prom, and it will be provided for this week’s upcoming graduation ceremony at Gardner Edgerton High School.
Boothe said the district was freezing grades for the affected students if they chose not to finish out the school year.
All school fees were also being waived for impacted students, and the district was providing additional mental health team members and resources for those who are impacted.
“School staff across the district have been actively looking for ways to assist those families through donations and volunteering,” Boothe said.
Boothe directed donations to be sent to The Hope Market fundraiser site.
At Monday night’s school board meeting, Huff said the displacement of Aspen Place residents was one of both tragedy and pride with the difficulty it had placed on an estimated 80 Gardner Edgerton students and the amount of help that had been poured into the Aspen Place neighborhood.
Huff said each of the three days he spent at Aspen Place, there was “more help than there was need.”
“I have never been more impressed with a community than I was as I walked around Aspen Place and saw the incredible outpouring of support that was going on for our families there,” Huff said.
Families were still dealing with the struggle with having to move in 48 hours, Huff added.
“But to see our community come together was really quite impressive.”
Huff said a team of counselors and social workers “bent over backwards” to help families and the district is reaching out to every family personally.
“But if there is something that we are missing, we encourage those families to give us a call, ask us the questions you need to ask, because we can even do a little bit more than what you might anticipate through partnerships with our community such as Grace Baptist Church and with The Hope Market and our foundation,” Huff said.
Huff said he encouraged the community to remember that the displacement of Aspen Place residents is a continuing issue.
“Our community is incredible, but I just don’t want our community to forget,” Huff said. “We will continue to support you all in the year coming up. We still want our kids to have a special end of the year.”
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