JACKSBORO, Texas (NewsNation) — As an EF3 tornado ripped through her North Texas community on Monday, local high school principal Starla Sanders knew what she had to do.

Her superintendent sent out a message, saying they were going to hold buses and shelter in place. Because a lot of Sanders’ students drive, she decided to send those who could home, and sheltered with the bus riders at the school,

Sanders’ decision to stay at Jacksboro High School was simple: “I had to take care of my kids and my staff that stayed back,” she said.

Monday’s tornado, which lasted 90 seconds, ripped the wall and roof from parts of Jacksboro High School and damaged the elementary school as well, ripping through the roof of the gym. No deaths or serious injuries were reported, but at least 60 to 80 homes were damaged in the storm — one of them was Sanders’ house.

In hindsight, Sanders said, she’s “thankful” she did not go home that day. Although Sanders added that she wouldn’t have gone home without her boys, ages 9 and 5, who were still at the elementary school, anyway.

“They’ve had lots of stories,” Sanders said of her children. Her oldest has been pretty stoic about what happened, though her son in kindergarten has been struggling a lot.

“My oldest son says there was food flying from the cafeteria in a circular motion,” Sanders said. “Their little eyes saw a lot. But they’re 100% safe.”

Sanders and her family are now staying at her mother-in-law’s house behind the middle school principal’s home, where they’ve been for the past two days. One friend brought over some Chiefs clothes for her son, who’s a big fan of the team.

Throughout this all, Sanders said, the community has pulled together. Multiple texts and calls have been sent to her, offering a place to stay or supplies.

“I want to say thank you to the elementary staff as well for what they did on Monday, because they’re heroes,” Sanders said on NewsNation’s “Morning in America.” “We know educators are heroes. But this is just a big example of how they showed that on Monday.”

“We’ve lived here for 15 years,” Sanders continued. “I’m just blessed that you know that they’ve rallied around all of our families that have damages.”

With this strong community support, Sanders said, the plan is to get school going again next Tuesday.

“I already have kids that are traveling going to extracurricular events, and so we would like for them to get back to some type of normalcy,” she said.