ST. AMANT - The sparkling new hallways of St. Amant Primary are bustling with eager teachers getting their classrooms ready for the new school year.

"Right now our teachers are unpacking," explains Assistant Principal Marguerite Guillot. "We have boxes coming in, we are just in unpacking mode trying to do what we can to make sure we're ready."

Soon, 500 students will fill the halls, but Guillot says it has been a journey getting them there.

"For the last year we've had crews in here cleaning up, and when they were cleaning it up they took all the old floors out, they took the ceilings out, they took all the millwork out and they've replaced all of that," she said.

With in days of school opening last year, floods displaced the students and faculty of the pre k-5 school.

Ascension Parish Superintendent David Alexander said getting Primary back in business was important.
 
"It's just a collective effort of everybody that was involved in this thing and we knew we needed to push here, especially for St. Amant Primary, since they were the only school still displaced in terms of property," said Alexander.

Nearly everything in the school is brand new, an upgrade from a building that was built nearly 30 years ago.

"It's exciting! When I see all the newly remodeled stuff, it also brings back where we were a year ago--you know, all those memories and the reasons why we're having to do all this stuff," said Guillot.

For many teachers, this is the first time they've been back in their classrooms since the storm, and Guillot says they're more than ready to start the school year.

"I absolutely, 100 percent, expect them to remain positive no matter the conditions. From day one, since the flood, our teachers have had the absolute best attitudes, if we asked them to do something that was out of the norm they did it with smiling faces because of our students."

Students in Ascension, Livingston and East Baton Rouge Parishes start school this Wednesday, August 9.