Kankakee school officials estimated the March 10 tornado and severe storms in Kankakee County caused millions of dollars in damage district-wide, with nine of 12 building roofs needing to be replaced.

Kankakee High School at 1200 W Jeffery St. faced the most damage, with thousands of holes created in the roof from the hailstorm.

After some patches were made to the roof, Kankakee High students were back to in-person learning Tuesday.

District 111 used five emergency days following the March 10 weather event.

School resumed March 18, but high schoolers shifted to e-learning for four days while preliminary repairs were being made.

Superintendent Teresa Lance said the temporary fix for the high school was to patch up the holes in the roof.

“Now, if it rains, that’ll give us an indication if there are any holes that we may have missed, but right now, the building is clean,” Lance said. “Students will come in, and aside from ceiling tiles being missing, it will be school as usual.”

While students won’t be able to use the main gym or turf room because of storm damage, the Community Center behind the high school is open and can be used for gym classes, she said.

Harrison Neal, assistant superintendent of business services, said during Monday’s Kankakee School Board meeting that several buildings were extensively damaged, but the most affected was the high school.

“The building itself, if you drive by, it looks fine, but that roof, the entire roof is almost destroyed,” he said. “It’s just thousands and thousands of holes from the hail, and it was almost literally raining inside the building on Wednesday morning after the storm.”

The main gym is closed, as the floor has warped and will need to be replaced. The turf room also is closed, and the turf also might have to be replaced.

The board is scheduled to vote on the demolition of the main gym floor at KHS to prevent further water damage during a special meeting on Saturday.

Kankakee Junior High, Taft, Kennedy and Avis Huff also experienced extensive roof damage and some interior building damage.

For example, some skylights were broken at Avis Huff and windows were broken at Kennedy.

The district’s former Aroma Park school, which is rented to Garden of Prayer Youth Center, sustained about as severe of damage as the high school, Neal said.

The gym roof was damaged from the hail, and there is possible structural damage in the gym at the Aroma Park site, he said.

Mark Twain, Steuben and Proegler schools all experienced moderate damage.

Lincoln Cultural Center, King and Edison all had little to no damage.

LCC has a bit of damage to the stage area in the auditorium because of a broken window, but it is otherwise in good shape, he said.

“King is in good shape, and ironically, so is Edison. No storm damage,” Neal said, eliciting some laughs during the meeting.

Despite having been closed due to structural issues earlier this year, with engineers having warned that a severe enough storm could cause collapse, Edison fared well through this storm.

The Meadowview property, which was previously used for the district’s transition program but was closed due to building issues, appears to be intact, he said.

The district’s transportation center experienced minimal leaking in its garage bays.

However, the district’s vehicle fleet took damage.

“Anybody who has a car in Kankakee or Aroma Park knows they didn’t fare too well, and neither did ours,” Neal said.

All driver’s education and security vehicles were heavily damaged and likely totaled.

Most 15-passenger vans were extensively damaged, and some are likely totaled.

There was also damage to one maintenance truck, one early childhood minivan and one special education van.

One Suburban was significantly damaged, and multiple leased buses were damaged as well as multiple district-owned buses.

Neal said the district still is inspecting for damage to its outdoor spaces, fields and equipment.

The district also is working with insurance adjustors, vendors and architects to assess damage and determine dollar amounts.

Damage will likely be in the millions, he said.

Insurance adjusters have said nine of the district’s 12 building roofs are probably a “total loss.”

“We’re going to have to prioritize replacements on that, because there’s no way we’re getting all that done at once, even if we had all the money in the world,” Neal said.

At this time, there’s been no determination if all items are covered by insurance.

The district will apply for any available disaster assistance, and some items also may qualify for the Health and Life Safety funding.

“At this time, we don’t have an answer to how we’re fixing all of this, but we’re confident in the way to get it all fixed, and we’ll have our schools back better than they were before,” Neal said.