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Teachers, Students Ready for Mobile Learning As Final Floyd-Flooded Schools Reopen in Trailers

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TARBORO — The school bell will ring Monday at two Edgecombe County schools that have been closed since Hurricane Floyd hit more than three weeks ago.

Two new campuses have been put together in two weeks. People in the hardest hit areas say anything that feels normal is an improvement. The teachers like what they see.

Flood water destroyed Wanda Jones' Tarboro home, and she is ready for some good news.

"This is why we're educators. It's for the children, and everything else is just stuff that can be replaced," Jones says. "We have our children coming back, and it's going to be fine."

Teachers spent Friday cleaning up, but they are not done. It will take the weekend to get the 50 mobile classrooms finished.

Everything has to be replaced before the classrooms are ready for the students. But there is no doubt that the students are ready for the classrooms.

After three weeks away from his friends, Chris Royster will be happy to give up his skateboard for his bookbag, though he says things will feel a little strange at the new campus.

"I'm used to my school," Royster says, "and that school, I don't know about it yet."

Royster's mother says parents in Tarboro and Princeville will be happy to see their kids go back to class.

"Every morning at 8:00 he's waking Mom up. 'Mom, it's time to get up. Mom, I'm hungry.' When he goes to school, I don't have to hear that at 8:00 in the morning. He'll be in school," she says.

Wanda Jones will be there too.

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