MARIETTA - The Cobb School Board on Thursday heard several options for rebuilding Clarkdale Elementary School, which was heavily damaged by the September flood.

Since September, Clarkdale students and their teachers have been divided between Austell Intermediate and Compton Elementary schools. The current set-up has sufficed as a temporary Band-Aid, but now the district and Clarkdale parents are looking toward the future for a more stable option for the school's students and staff.

During the board's public comment, Russ Danser a Clarkdale father, spoke emotionally to the board, asking it to take the necessary steps to start rebuilding the school so he could go home and tell his 8-year-old daughter that she could return to the normalcy of her elementary school.

"You see, four months ago - almost to the day - my third-grader looked at me and said, 'Dad, how is it that we lost our house and our school in the same day?'" Danser said through tears.

Associate Superintendent of Operational Support Gordon Pritz reported the progress the district has had with federal and state assistance regarding funds and options to rebuild the school on its current site, move the school to a new site, or simply absorb the students and teachers from Clarkdale into other neighboring schools.

Of the three options, Pritz spent a significant amount of time talking about a new school that would be built on land already owned by the district, adjacent to Cooper Middle School. The new construction would still be in the same flood plain as the original Clarkdale school, but on land that is significantly higher than the flooded building.

The new school would also be considerably larger, with 53 classrooms, as opposed to the older 22-classroom school that also had 13 trailers. Pritz said the new school would house not only students from the Clarkdale, but also from other nearby overcrowded school. This would be accomplished through redistricting.

The district has already received preliminary approval from the state for the planning of a new school on the Cooper site, and has set a proposed estimated budget of $20 million.

Before building, Pritz said the district has to wait to hear back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the plan and funding it could receive. But he did go on to say that funds from FEMA, GEMA and insurance could total nearly $6 million to $7 million. Additional funds for the building would most likely come from SPLOST II and SPLOST III dollars, special tax money previously set aside for renovations to Clarkdale before the flood and state capital outlay funds. The district said it is pursing potential grants with the help of GEMA to make up the difference to fund the construction.

Pritz said that the next steps in deciding how to proceed with the Clarkdale construction involves community input. He announced that the district will conduct a meeting about the Clarkdale plans with its PTA on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at Ewing Road Baptist Church. He said he will come back to the board with a firmer plan on Feb. 10.

Pritz commented that while the work with FEMA and GEMA has not exactly been a very quick process, the response efforts from the community have been anything but slow.

"We were able to move in two days an entire school into two different locations," Pritz said.

Help for Clarkdale came in another form on Thursday night when a youth council from Kennesaw Mountain and North Cobb high schools presented the elementary school with more than 400 books donated from a book drive conducted by the council.

"I think this just demonstrates and it symbolizes the spirit of resiliency in the community. And we are working to overcome that tragic event and we are doing it in a triumphant way and I think that's something we all can be proud of," board member David Morgan said. Morgan represents the district that includes Clarkdale.