After a tornado hit their high school in March of 2025, the students and faculty of Perryville are advocating for a new high school that may be built after an August vote.
The high school, originally built in 1956, was hit heavily by the tornado and sustained serious damage. According to the Perryville superintendent, Dr. Fara Jones, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommended the building be demolished and rebuilt due to safety concerns rather than just repaired.
Last May, the Perry County District 32 Board of Education approved the language on a modified Proposition KIDS ballot measure that will be on the ballot in the Aug. 4, 2026 primary election.
The school board’s website states: “The measure would raise the District’s operating levy ceiling to $3.4979 beginning in 2026, and it would be reduced by an estimated $.5440 when the temporary levy sunsets in 2046.”
During the week of June 15, crews began demolition work at Perryville High School (PHS), aiming to complete the project before the start of classes on Aug 24. The cafeteria, band room and chorus rooms will be preserved and used as part of the building.
Since the tornado, Jones said high school classes have been scattered across campus, and the high schoolers have been taking their classes in the elementary building and even some temporary structures.
“Our kids have been amazing. Staff have been very resilient because we've had a lot of changes. Students have been displaced. We have about 650 high school students who lost their whole high school,” Jones said. “So we're very proud of the fact that those students, immediately after the tornado, only missed 11 days of school. We had everybody back in person on campus, but very scattered. We had students in all kinds of different buildings. It's kind of a lot like a college campus.”
Jones said they want to have the students in the new high school as soon as possible, but construction takes time, and they will have to continue moving throughout campus again next semester.
Jones said that when the new high school is built ot will be similar to the old building and include a multi-purpose room that will be shared with the community.
“It's definitely going to be stronger, safer, more solid, and everybody under one roof. The footprint is pretty well, including the square footage, is just pretty well very similar to what we had, maybe give or take about 2020 500 square feet,” Jones said. “One of the spaces in that square footage total will be a multi-purpose room, a space that we did not currently have, where our students can do a lot of different things such as plays, host dances, club meetings, professional development, presentations. So an area large enough for all of our students to fit in one room.”
Jones said many of the high school students have been advocating for the KIDS ballot measure, even though many of them will graduate before they ever get to see the new building.
“Our students, we've been so very proud of them being advocates for themselves. And so, a lot of our students have reached out on social media,” Jones said. “They've even reached out to news media and participated in stories to just kind of tell their experience and express their desire for support, and so we are so excited and proud that they found their voices and they've been advocating for themselves and what they believe is important for not just themselves but the students that are coming in behind them.”
While the tornado left the school damaged, Jones said they were very lucky that there were no injuries, and they now have the opportunity to improve their school.
“This high school building was the oldest building on our campus. It was a building that was not up to code and standards, and we knew that the community was going to have to come together for a plan for that building,” Jones said. “It was aging, and it was going to be an expensive remodel. And so, it almost turns out that opportunity feels like a bit of a divine intervention. That the one building that got hit the heaviest and that suffered the most structural damage is the one that we were going to have to work to come up with a plan for anyway. So we talk a lot about opportunities. We really try to focus on the positives that have come out of this, and there's been a lot of that.”
Jones said absentee voting is open now, and she hopes the community gets engaged and votes.