Grassroots Free School has operated as a private nontraditional education option for 52 years. Now its building is buried under fallen trees after three tornadoes tore through the city early Friday, May 10.

“I was able to get there Saturday morning for the first time to see it for myself, and I was brought to tears as soon as I pulled up,” Kim Weinrich, the school’s director, told the Tallahassee Democrat this week in an interview.

“Our school is not like your typical school building, we’re not that huge. We have two old buildings, and they’re like old schoolhouses. Both of them have trees on and through the buildings.” Since Friday, her only points of entry have been climbing through windows.

More worrisome, insurance adjusters told her that repairs would cost more than what the insurance covers. But Weinrich remains optimistic the school will somehow recover and be up and running by August for the start of next school year.

Grassroots, which came out of the “free school movement” of the 1970s, is based on individual freedom and democratic government. The school doesn’t operate under an accreditation, so students are typically allowed to dictate their own day and activities, taking on independent projects.

It serves children ages 5 to 14 and only enrolls up to 40 students each school year. Grassroots has its own school board and employs 16 teachers; parents commit about 20 hours a week to volunteering.

Most of the Grassroots community remains without power, and even with the school still in limbo, Weinrich decided to proceed with their end of year field trip to Wakulla Springs, to get students out for the afternoon.

One student, Daphne Garnier, 13, lives nearby and has attended the school since age 5. “We had to go around the school because you couldn’t get to it,” Garnier said. “It was just a blockade of trees.”

She added that she “couldn’t see inside. There was a tunnel made out of the branches that we had to go under just to get onto the porch.”

Due to the destruction, the school’s annual summer camp program has been cancelled, something Garnier was looking forward to participating in as a volunteer for the first time this year.

“I’m kind of really bummed,” she said. “I love the summer camp. I would just walk up to the school and just kind of exist.”

Volunteering for camp was meant to be Garnier’s last hurrah at the school, as she is set to enroll at SAIL High School on Jackson Bluff Road in August.

Weinrich, director of the school for 15 years, opted to interview with the Democrat on the side of Old Saint Augustine Road which was closed Wednesday afternoon as utility teams worked to restore power lines and remove fallen trees. Navigating roadblocks has been her daily routine since Friday, she said.

More: Do you want to assist in Tallahassee’s tornado recovery? Here’s how

She said parents, students, alumni, and others have pitched in, offering to help remove trees and puts tarps over the school’s roof.

Ellen Westbrook, a parent of a child at the school and member of its board, said the community has been a great help in a time of need, but she added it will need more support to truly get back up and running.

“The school community’s steadfast commitment to Grassroots School and its students, even amidst the challenges posed by the storm, has shown that the school will persevere,” she said. “But we will need help from the larger Tallahassee community to bring Grassroots School back to what it once was.”

How to help

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter/X: @AlaijahBrown3

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Grassroots School destroyed by storms, seeks help from community