The nicely appointed front foyer of the Newport Business Institute in Lower Burrell is quiet this Friday, as it is most Fridays, since classes aren't held on the last workday of the week.

Fridays are reserved for independent study, teacher conferences or individual projects, so both the Newport school and its sister school just up Greensburg Road, Oakbridge Academy of Arts, have only a few students around. They're working one-on-one with teachers, trying out darkroom techniques or just reading.

Each school has about 100 students. Both also have loyal alumni and staff and a supportive community, which became apparent in 2004 when flooding from Hurricane Ivan nearly closed them down.

Maybe it's because they have such a long history in the New Kensington area.

Newport began in 1895 as Sayre Business College, an offshoot of the Alcoa Co., which had a plant and offices in New Kensington, said J. Bryant Mullen, owner and president of both schools.

Then it became New Kensington Commercial School, a place where hundreds of high school graduates from northern Westmoreland and Allegheny counties learned managerial and secretarial skills for the business world.

It moved from New Kensington to the vacant Burrell School District's Wills School on Greensburg Road in 1975, where it remains, and was renamed Newport Business Institute in 1995. Mr. Mullen's company also owns Newport Business Institute in Williamsport.

Oakbridge was once the Art Institute of New Kensington, a small school founded in 1972 as a place where creative young people from the area could learn how to use their talents to earn a living. That school is now housed in a former car dealership building less than a quarter mile from Newport.

Designers and photographers for companies and media outlets throughout the area have Oakbridge alumni on their payrolls, administrators say.

Both schools are busy hives of learning. You'd never guess that the little creek behind Oakbridge and across the road from Newport came close to wiping them out in the wake of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. Swollen from record-breaking rains, it inundated the area so badly Oakbridge's floors were deep with water and mud and Newport lost just about everything.

Ray Wroblewski, the director of Newport Business Institute, has the slides to prove it. The images show mud-caked computers on the first floor and a ruined furnace in the basement.

Watermarks have since been painted over but he indicates where flood waters rose midway between the floor and ceiling in a conference room, soaking rugs and furniture and office equipment.

"Every desk and computer on the first two floors were destroyed in the flood," he said.

But something unexpected happened in the days after the flood waters receded.

People began to show up to help.

"Teachers and students got on their boots and gloves," Mr. Mullen said.

They and other members of the community wanted to help get their schools back in shape.

"The Kinloch firemen -- they're the best firemen in the world," Mr. Mullen said of the Lower Burrell volunteer company.

They succeeded in getting the schools reopened.

Accounting and computer teacher Marie Stewart said the loyalty comes from the small classes and the one-on-one contact between teacher and student. The Wilkins resident graduated from Newport before she earned her bachelor's degree at Robert Morris University and joined the faculty.

"We plant the seed," Mr. Mullen said.

The curriculums of both schools are specialized and aimed at people who want to get started on their careers and who want to do it close to home. Students are from New Kensington, Butler, Shaler and Penn Hills; they are young people just out of high school and older students who want to learn skills for their current jobs.

They pay about $2,500 a quarter in tuition and get an associate's degree and lifelong placement services for their money and effort.

Mr. Mullen points to his own experience.

He's a native of Oakmont and a graduate of Riverview High School. His first post-high school experience was close to home, too, when he graduated from Newport during the time it was New Kensington Commercial School.

"We're helping [local people] to get their first career," Mr. Mullen said.

Oakbridge Director Janie Gatty, also a New Kensington Commercial School graduate, said the school is a place where students learn that their art talents can lead to a satisfying career.

"There are so many things they can do," she said.

And they can do it without driving to Pittsburgh every day or enrolling somewhere out of the area, Ms. Gatty said.

Right now, a group of Oakbridge students is collaborating on a project for Lower Burrell. The city wants a logo it can use for easy identification of sites such as recycling centers or parks.

Mr. Mullen said even though the schools are up and running, with furniture and new paint and busy students, a few things are missing -- a full library, for instance.

The Newport library was located in the basement area before the flood. More than 5,000 books were lost when the waters rose that day.

The library has since been moved to the second floor, and now has 2,000 volumes, most donated by that same loyal community.

It lacks the books on business the school once had, something Mr. Mullen regrets but realizes will take time to replace.

But he's philosophical.

"You can't buy a library. You build it," he said.