VERNONIA It wasnt a very good birthday five years ago for 16-year-old Brendan McNeill, then a sixth-grader in Vernonia although he did get a two-week vacation.

I got ready for school like any other day, walked outside and there was the flood, said McNeill about the early December flooding in 2007. My house was dry. We live up on a hill.

Within days McNeill found himself living in his parents room, while 11 people shared space in his 1,700-square foot home. Cheryl McNeill, his mother, said it would be two weeks before her son made it back to school six months before Federal Emergency Management Administration trailers arrived and her house emptied a little.

McNeill begrudgingly starts school this year in the new, 135,000-square foot, state-of-the-art K-12 Vernonia Schools, as its called. It opened on high ground Tuesday in Vernonia.

This community was determined to fight back after two 500-year floods in a period of 11 years, said Ken Cox, superintendent of the Vernonia School District, of the devastating floods in 1996 and 2007. Cox was headed toward retirement in 2007 before the floods changes his lifes direction.

I was reminded last week of someone who said this is just a dream. Ladies and gentlemen:?Behold the dream.

The dream made Vernonia the center of attention for at least one day, Tuesday. Columbia County Commissioner Tony Hyde, Oregons Chief Education Officer Rudy Crew, state Rep. Brad Witt, state Rep. Deborah Boone, Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Sen. Jeff Merkley and former Gov. Ted Kulongoski all took the podium to champion Oregons bipartisan effort to rebuild a communitys soul.

The most prominent politician of the day at least for Vernonians was teary-eyed state Sen. Betsy Johnson, who championed the new Vernonia school from idea to dedication.

I, too, remember standing on this site in 2007 when the emergency helicopters were coming and going, and look what we have done, said Johnson, who regularly paused for a cascade of applause.

When Vernonia was in ruins, some people said Who cares? Give it up; move the town; send the kids to Hillsboro or Scappoose or Forrest Grove; rebuild someplace else, she said. And you, Vernonia, didnt. We fought back and here it is:?Your new schools.

State of the art

Vernonia Schools, a single K-12 structure, tucked safely on a hill far above the flood plains of the Nehalem River and Rock Creek, is ready to take in the approximately 600 students and grow to 1,000.

Its high and dry, said fifth-grade teacher Lynn Shaw, whos been with the district for the past 27 years. Thats the main thing.

The school itself consists of a main stem running down the middle, with wings branching off for various grade levels. The corridors connecting the entire building, along with most rooms, exude openness, spanning both floors and feature natural lighting from the ceilings everywhere.

In the main entrance, some of the trees cleared to make way for the school have been incorporated into a wall honoring the many donors who made it all happen. The community wanted to name the main entrance hall in honor of Sen. Johnson, who wouldnt have it so stands the Hall of Vernonia Champions, a dedication to all donors.

Vernonia might have some of the most impressive gyms in the state now. A wrestling gym sits at the foot of the building; next to it stands a gym with seating for 1,000 during sporting events and middle/high school students; and above that is a smaller gym for elementary school students.

The entire structure is soon to become the first K-12 school in the country to earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification through a multitude of design features:

A 50,000-gallon holding tank will help recirculate water in radiation pipes in the school’s floors to cool it.

Wood pellets from regional sawmills will power the schools biomass boiler systems.

Countless parts have been salvaged from the old school buildings and used in Vernonia Schools.

The library, in the most prime real estate with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the main entrance, might be the best nook on campus.

The cavernous room is divided between elementary and middle/high school materials. Rows of computers line each side, and a padded, burgundy room next to the windows provides a quiet room for reading and some of the best cellphone reception in the building.

I believe that the library is going to be the heart and the soul of the school, said Glenda DeLemos, an elementary librarian and technology coordinator whos been with the district for 34 years.

Its going to enhance their education, because theyre going to want to learn; its going to be a positive, wonderful place to be.

After the waters receded

I was walking around, looking in the windows, and there was just a coating of mud all over everything, said Shaw about the aftermath of the water level rising 14 feet after 11 inches of rain in the matter of a weekend in 2007. The rooms looked like a tidal wave had gone through them.

Shaws fifth-grade classroom was on the second floor of Washington Grade School, built of brick and mortar in the 1920s on a flood plain.

I think we were more prepared in 2007, and the one in 2007 was faster, said Cheryl McNeill. It took a whole day for the water to rise in 96, and in 2007, it went from just barely out of the banks to in peoples houses in less than five hours.

The National Guard ended up rescuing between 300 and 400 people from Vernonia and surrounding areas.

After the flood waters receded, the community went to work cleaning up, with the help of everyone from locals and out-of-towners to prison work crews and National Guardsmen. Students like Brenden McNeill spent several months gathering early in the morning for the trip to Scappoose, which took on Vernonia students until a makeshift district could be assembled.

The district brought in modular classrooms, held classes around the community and continued using salvaged portions of their old schools as a temporary solution. They continue to play football on their existing field.

The old Vernonia school buildings are being gutted. Demolition is expected to occur by October, after which the land will be turned into a park. Trails End Recovery, an Astoria company that handled much of the demolition throughout the city after the flood, is taking the schools down.

Unfinished business

Dawn Plews, business manager for the Vernonia School District, estimates that there is still $5 million that needs to be raised to help pay off the financing used to build Vernonia Schools, which came in at around $40 million. The money for the building came from a myriad of sources:

Vernonia residents passed a bond ultimately worth $13.6 million on the principal and interest to help build a new school.

FEMA?contributed $11 million, with some of the money given as excess from North Dakota.

The Oregon Department of Transportation gave $3.8 million and worked on Missouri Avenue leading up to the school and a new exit on Oregon Highway 47.

The Oregon Department of Energy gave $1 million.

The Ford Family Foundation gave a challenge grant of $1 million, stipulating that an equal amount had to be raised.

The school district secured a $3.3-million Qualified School Construction Bond. The district still pays $205,000 a year on the bond, a cost which has been covered by fundraising from the Vernonia Education Foundation.

The district also borrowed $1 million from Wedbush Bank using a facilities grant as the collateral.

A $1 million Cool Schools Grant funded engineering of the new building.

Between $3 and $4 million came from donations and other sources.

While Vernonia Education Foundation has covered the construction bond, Plews said the Cool Schools Grant will be covered by savings on utilities, which she estimated might by 50 percent less than at the old school buildings.

Donations to help pay for Vernonia Schools can be made by visiting www.vernonia schools.org or by calling Betsy Miller at 503-429-5891 for more information.