UPDATE: Grace Baptist successfully appeals FEMA's decision to deny funding for damage from 2020 Easter tornadoes

UPDATE: FEMA has approved an appeal filed by Grace Baptist Ministries after funding to address the damage from the Easter Sunday tornadoes in 2020 was denied.

FEMA initially denied the $30-million sought for the project.

The federal agency will re-estimate damage costs, which should increase the amount of funding for the project, according to an update posted to Grace Baptist’s website.

Once the estimate is finished, work to finish the project can resume and is expected to take six to eight months.

Despite the destruction of Grace Baptist Academy by the Easter tornadoes in 2020, classes have still been held by the school since then.

Grace Baptist received $20-million from insurance to rebuild but it wasn't enough.

That is why the additional funding from the federal government is needed to finish work on the school.

You can find updates on the project and ways you can help by visiting Grace Baptist Ministries online.

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PREVIOUS STORY: Monday was the first day back to school for Grace Baptist Academy students and it’s the fourth school year since the Easter tornadoes destroyed the campus in 2020.

Local 3 News spoke with Head Master Matt Pollock to find out why work to rebuild the campus has been paused for almost two years.

Pollock said the holdup is between FEMA and a third-party agency that needed to sign off on the $30-million of aid needed to rebuild.

Pollock explained that any claim submitted to FEMA that’s over $20-million must be reviewed and approved by the third-party agency, which in this case is the US Army Corp of Engineers.

"Our current situation, we're waiting on the US Army Corp of Engineers to review the claims and all the cost estimated specifically that FEMA did. That's required by law. We've been on a learning journey," Pollock said.

Pollock said he hopes that the review is finished very soon, so they can continue the construction.

He also thanked the community for all the support over the years since the tornado outbreak.

Stay with the Local 3 News app for updates to this story.

PREVIOUS STORY: Grace Baptist Academy has plans to begin construction again after putting it on pause for more than six months while waiting for FEMA to kick in. The school was destroyed in the Easter tornadoes in April two years ago.

They received $20 million from insurance to rebuild, but that wasn't enough and the academy looked to FEMA for assistance.

"We began to do so in 2020. Meanwhile we got our construction started again,” said Matt Pollock, the Head of School at Grace Baptist Academy.

That construction started in the fall of 2020 and paused in December of 2021 because they had not received their funds from FEMA.

"The biggest challenge we have right now is we don't have a final, official number. It is going to be tens of millions,” Pollock said.

FEMA has said they will be giving Grace Baptist a portion of the funds very soon, and the school will re-launch the project this fall. To get additional funds, they will have to go through an appeal process, which could take several more months.

"That doesn't stop us from beginning construction once again,” Pollock told us.

The construction company is gearing up to get back to the job site, which can be a process itself.

"They've got to work through getting all their subs back in, so there's a whole process to that that it's like -- when you come to a halt, to get that machine moving again is -- it's quite a process,” Pollock said.

The original completion date was targeted around this past May, but they are well off their mark.

Amongst all the frustrations and setbacks, and no physical building to learn in for the past two years, they have seen a surge in enrollment.

"Since the fall of 2020, we have a 34-percent growth of numbers where we're going to be well over five hundred students this fall,” said Pollock.

He credits that to the school's faith and core values and the people that make it special.

A temporary timeline for the project to be complete is next spring. Right now students are using facilities at Morris Hill Baptist Church.