Brantley County schools to reopen Monday as fire conditions improve

BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Schools in Brantley County are set to reopen Monday.

In a social media post, the Brantley County School System said in part, “With the improvement of fire conditions, we plan to welcome our students back to school on Monday.”

School officials say they wanted to make clear and say with care for families who have been impacted, displaced, or still navigating property loss, to not feel pressured to return to school right away.

Brantley County Schools have been closed since April 22 due to the wildfires and conditions in the area.

Owen Spradley, a junior at Brantley County High School who lives in the fire-affected area, said he is looking forward to being back in class.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Spradley said.

Students return to home court

Spradley said the fires brought his classmates closer together.

“I’ve had a lot of people check on me to see if I was okay since I live so close to the wildfire, and it was moving I didn’t expect it, so it was nice,” he said.

Spradley is on the school’s tennis team, which is currently in playoffs. Their last game had to be moved from the high school due to smoke conditions. The team is taking their home court Monday for the next game.

“I was surprised at how many people from Brantley were over there, so I think having the next game here it’s going to be, it’s going to be exciting,” Spradley said.

As the county shifts back to normalcy, fire-related updates will be moving off of the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page and to county commission’s pages.