Students returned to Morrell Consolidated School Thursday. (Sara Fraser/CBC)

Students returned to Morell Consolidated School Thursday following a year-long closure to deal with mould and air quality issues.

The kindergarten-Grade 8 school was closed after students and staff reported feeling ill.

"I ended up having a lot of throat infections, a lot of sinuses, I had to go on multiple puffers, and just pure exhaustion at night," said Tracy Doran, a kindergarten teacher at the school.

The 220 students attended St. Peter's School and Morell Regional High School while the repairs were made.

Leo Hendricken, principal of Morell Consolidated, said the $1.2 million-worth of repairs have been extensive.

"The outside of the building was totally stripped of brick. They put a vapour barrier around the school and then they replaced the brick and we went with blue siding — that's the outside," he said.

"They had to take out all the windows, build them out, put vapour barrier around them. The ones that were not workable, they replaced. You see we have a new air exchange system that is throughout the whole school. They upgraded the wiring in the whole school."

New boilers were installed as well.

Hendricken said students and staff are already noticing an improvement with the air quality of the 44-year-old building.

"I noticed a significant difference in the air quality in the school, and just the cleanliness, it just smells better, smells fresher," Doran said.

Students said they were excited to return to their school.

Sam Gallant, a Grade 1 student, said he was excited "because we weren't in here for a long time."

"It's great, we just live around the corner, so it's just perfect for us," said Sam's father Stephen Gallant.

Hendrickson said after students and staff shuffling between two schools, he's relieved to have the school back.

"With this renovation I hope it'll last a long time," Hendrickson said. "It's a great part of the community."