WEST -- Schools are back in session, but for one Central Texas school district the beginning of this school year marks a major milestone.
After tragedy struck in 2013, West High School and West Middle School were completely rebuilt, housed together in a new state-of-the-art facility,
Teachers in West moved into their brand new classrooms the second week of August, more than three years after a deadly fertilizer plant explosion took out almost every school in the district.
Housing grades 6-12, the new two-story building will serve about 660 students. Most of those students had been learning in temporary, portable classrooms since their old schools were destroyed in the deadly explosion on April 17, 2013, which left 15 dead and hundreds injured.
Both teachers who were there for the blast, and new teachers, said moving in to the new school, and leaving the temporary one, had been bittersweet.
"It makes me sad to see it go, but happy to know we're going into this new home of ours because we did make those portables home for our kids," said Donna Sexton, a sophomore English teacher at West High School.
"I am going to miss the portable building, honestly, just because that was my first classroom, it was my home, it was my little baby," said Chelsey Lauer, freshman English teacher at West High School. "But I'm so excited to be in the new building, and to have little things, like a hallway."
There are plenty of hallways in the new school, including a main one in between the high school and middle school which connects the two. District officials said the main hallway would be closed during the day, but open after school and for basketball games and other events.
West school and city leaders said it'd been an emotional transition.
"After being in the temporary campuses for three years, and all that that entailed, to finally be home in the campus that we've been talking and dreaming about for years, it's finally a reality and they are thrilled to be a part of our team," said West Independent School District Superintendent David Truitt.
"This is another benchmark that shows the recovery is coming full-circle and completed," said West Mayor Tommy Muska. "This is just a remarkable building."
So, who paid for that remarkable building? For once, not the taxpayers. Insurance, the Texas Education Agency, and FEMA footed the bill for the project, which cost more than $50 million.