PARKERSBURG, Iowa — With a new high school expected to be open by this time next year, Aplington-Parkersburg students began the new school year by walking into the cramped quarters of the middle school.

The high school was destroyed when an EF5 tornado tore through Parkersburg on May 25. Since then, school officials have promised two things — that a new school at the same site will be ready for the 2009-2010 school year and that its first football game will be played on the field next to where the high school once stood.

While the second promise will come true soon, students will have to wait for the first one.

As the students returned to school on Wednesday, Principal David Meyer joked with them about having to attend class at the middle school.

“I’ll bet you thought when you left the middle school in the eighth grade that you’d never be back here,” he said to the 240 students who gathered for an assembly in a stuffy gymnasium.

Some students were frustrated by the change.

“I walked down that hall and all I saw were middle-schoolers,” said senior Lexi Voss. “Our senior class is pretty bummed. We’re going to have to make the best of it. We have no choice.”

Students returned to find there weren’t enough physics books or parking spots, and band uniforms will hang in the hallway because there isn’t enough closet space.

And students will have to have gym class outside until an addition to the middle school is complete in October.

“Pray for nice weather,” joked Jo Baedke, the physical education teacher.

To hold the high school students, elementary students were moved to another building. Posters left behind in what had been a kindergarten glass drew giggles from high schoolers.

While students grumbled at times about the changes, teachers worked to keep it all in perspective.

Al Kearns, a sociology teacher, worked the tornado into a lesson about disasters and suffering.

“You tell me why you can’t learn here,” he told his students. “We can. We will.”

Spanish teacher Bobbi Abbas reminded students that their school year last spring was cut short by the tornado.

“How many of you are glad you didn’t have to take your semester test in Spanish?” she asked. All the students raised their hands.

Then she asked: “How many of you lost everything?” Two students raised their hands.

About 30 students are living in other cities while they wait for their homes to be rebuilt.

“It’s hard to stay strong sometimes,” said Voss, the high school senior. “Everyone has to step it up and just make the best of it.”

Meyer said he sympathizes with the senior class.

“My heart goes out to this class,” he said. “Finally, you’re seniors and you don’t get to graduate from your high school.”