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Rushford, Minn. (AP) ― As students reported for the first day of class in the Rushford-Peterson schools, plastic sheeting sealed off the high school building's lower level.

Powder that attacks mold and mildew coated the choir room in ghostly white as the flood's dank stench hung in an unusable classroom. Upstairs, the bathroom sinks and drinking fountains were wrapped in plastic, because the tapwater still was unfit to drink.

But with so much of life disrupted by the devastating floods that struck southeastern Minnesota last month, the school's leaders were determined on Tuesday to open classes on schedule.

Thirty-five thousand bottles of donated drinking water were stacked around the combined high school and elementary school building and inside a semi-trailer truck parked in the schoolyard. Portable handwashing stations sprang up outside bathrooms alongside tables crowded with bottles of hand sanitizer and rolls of paper towels. Toilets were working.

"The building is in great shape, despite some of the problems the flood created," high school Principal Brad Johnson told students at a morning assembly that kicked off the day. "We will get through this."

The flood damaged 1,500 homes and left seven southeastern counties federal disaster areas.

In Rushford, the floods found their way into the high school, but the attached elementary school was undamaged.

Out of a total enrollment of about 685, district officials said about 10 students were displaced to the Houston, Minn. area and about 16 more to the Winona area, requiring new bus routes. Preliminary numbers show that 15 students who were displaced by the floods transferred out of the district altogether, said Toni Oian, a clerk in the district office.

After a deputy state fire marshal pronounced the campus ready for class Tuesday, students were greeted by a tanker truck full of water and boxes of donated school supplies.

Counselor Erin Thompson said that students hadn't stopped by to talk about the floods, but noted that that could change as the excitement of the first day wears away and other emotions surface.

Some students said that although they sensed a somber mood Tuesday, most of the 250 high schoolers seemed ready for the school year.

"It's really nice to come back," said freshman Emily Frick, whose home is a total loss. "(School) takes a weight off my shoulders. I don't have to deal with (the flood's aftermath) eight hours of the day. Except that we can't wash our hands, but hey, we can flush!"

With the choir room off limits, Frick and others would have to have class in the wrestling room. Senior Carina Schiltz was the first of 14 girls to arrive for choir. "Do I have to take my shoes off?" she asked vocal music teacher Diana Poppe.

"No," Poppe said, explaining that only one half of the room (covered in new wrestling mats) was off limits.

"This is majorly awkward," said sophomore Sawyer Stennes as she boldly walked in and surveyed Poppe's temporary digs.

The mood lightened when Poppe tested her piano's survival post-flood. She sat down on the bench, held out a finger and pressed down. A deep, perfect note reverberated in the air.

"Woo!" the girls cried out in unison. "We have a piano that works and toilets that flush!" Poppe said as she stood up and clenched her fist. "Yes!"

By CHAO XIONG
Star Tribune of Minneapolis

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)