Students across Sevier County returned for their first day of the 2017-2018 school year.
That includes Gatlinburg’s Pi Beta Phi Elementary. The historic school was founded back in 1912, and sits in the heart of the Smoky Mountains.
The school community went through a challenging time last year when deadly wildfires swept through Sevier County in November.
Part of the school’s art room suffered damage, and 131 students and seven teachers lost their homes. Two of the wildfire victims, Chloe and Lily Reed, were also students at the school.
Classmates honored their memory by planting a magnolia tree in the school yard last spring.
Principal Carey Woods has been preparing hard for the beginning of this school year. The best part of the first day for her is welcoming back the students.
"When the children come the first day, they smile. They are just as excited as we are. It’s a great place to be,” Woods said.
Each year, the school chooses a new theme.
“This year it's ‘together we are strong’, and I think it is just that home feeling that we are a family and we each play an intricate part of how wonderful our school year is going to be,” Woods said. “Without all of us together really standing firm, it takes each one of us to have a successful school year -- parents, teachers, community members -- showing we are resilient and nothing can stop us as a school.”
Donations poured in from across the country following the wildfires. So many that each student will receive a backpack full of school supplies on the first day.
"Our students have the opportunity to come back with all the supplies they need, made possible through so many volunteers. I just want to say thank you to everyone who made that possible for our students,” Woods said.
The students will also be returning to some new artwork in their cafeteria. Two teachers worked over the summer to paint murals along the wall. A mountain scape, bears, fireflies and a “mountain tough” sign cover the lunchroom walls now.
“This cafeteria piece encompasses the fireflies, the rivers, and the mountain scenery,” Wood explained. “We are forever Pi Beta Phi mountain strong, mountain tough. That’s a piece of our culture now, our school history.”
As well as new additions, students will see familiar pieces in a new place as well.
Maintenance workers were able to salvage the ceiling tiles from the art room, which have now been framed and placed all around the school.
At the end of the school year, 8th graders paint the tiles before going to high school as a way to leave their mark at Pi Beta Phi.
"Putting them up throughout the school, to come through and look at those, these were the ceiling tiles in our art room,” Woods said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to keep them preserved, we are able to look at them every day as we walk down the hall.”
Outside the school, words of encouragement colorfully dot the back entrance. The 'Stars of Hope' project left these words of inspiration several months back when students returned to the school for the first time since the wildfires.