Less than a week after the disastrous fertilizer plant explosion, West students returned to school Monday to finish out the year.

Pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students returned to West Elementary School, a little over a mile away from the West Fertilizer Co. plant that caught fire and exploded Wednesday night.

Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that spending more state money on inspections would not have prevented the deadly explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant that was last investigated by Texas environmental regulators in 2006.

Baylor will host a memorial service Thursday at the Ferrell Center for the 11 first responders killed in the West explosion.

Doors open at 1 p.m. and the service begins at 2 p.m.. A procession beginning at 11 a.m. will immediately precede the service.

A group of five students kick around a volleyball, playing soccer, around 10:30 p.m. on a Wednesday. They share stories of their day amid laughter. It’s not intramural practice. It’s the second floor corridor between Moody Memorial Library and Jessie H. Jones Library.

Over the years, the central libraries have changed the function of some of their spaces, but no gym has been added. These libraries include Moody, built in 1968, and Jones, built in 1992. In fact, no square footage has been added to the central libraries since their construction.