Staff Sgt. Lucian Adams Elementary School is named for a Port Arthur native who showed rare grace under fire in defending his country during World War II, earning, among many wartime accolades, the Medal of Honor.

Adams Elementary’s 680 students and staff showed rare grace last year under the duress of a school year spent on the road, attending Booker T. Washington Elementary and Dick Dowling Elementary while their own school, inundated in the floodwaters of Tropical Storm Harvey last August, underwent repairs.

Walls were cut out to 3 and 4 feet, floors were redone, the roof was fixed and touch-ups were done throughout the Adams school, the most damaged of the campuses in the Port Arthur Independent School District. Mold was a problem, too.

There are no medals lauding the Adams students and staff for weathering the yearlong effects of the storm, but a fully refurbished school awaits them today, as they start the 2018-19 school. It will be nice to be home.

“It feels great,” said Brittany Johnson, an Adams coach. “I’m enjoying being back and happy to be back home.”

Port Arthur schools are the first of the public systems to return to classes this week. Nederland, Port Neches-Groves and Sabine Pass follow next week.

Superintendent Mark Porterie said the Port Arthur schools are seeking some sense of normal after a hectic 2017-18 created and exacerbated by the flooding. Normal would be nice.

Port Arthur and environs remain a long way from healing, with public infrastructure, many businesses and private homes still awaiting repair. But faculty, students and staff soldier on.

“We want to remain calm and move forward,” Porterie said about plans for the PAISD this year. Slow and steady.

Porterie conceded that the system doesn’t know what today’s school openings will mean in this city. The system lost some 500 students last year after the storms, dropping enrollment from about 9,000 to about 8,500 at year’s end.

School system leaders aren’t entirely sure what enrollment will be. But they have to be ready for any eventuality. Porterie said the system has been hiring teachers “full throttle” to be prepared.

He said many people appear to be moving into the system; he met some at the system’s One Stop Registration. He hopes they’ll be back today. We do, too.

We salute Port Arthur’s and neighboring systems’ school leadership and teachers as they move past last year’s unprecedented flooding and into a new, brighter year.

We hope students at Adams Elementary consider their namesake’s honor and courage. We hope they will remember that he, too, attended Port Arthur schools, just like they do, and overcame enormous challenges in leading a worthy life.

Today starts a great opportunity for students to do the same.

Good luck.