More than four years after losing their permanent home from a tornado, teachers returned and some new students were welcomed Friday morning to the new Page Middle School.

State and local officials joined them for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate the 117,000-square-foot building. Following the Labor Day weekend, the first classes were held in the new building on Tuesday, as the division began its 2015-2016 school year.

“Today, we celebrate a vision that began four years ago,” said Page Middle School principal Ginny Wilburn. “Today, we are clicking our heels, chanting, ‘There is no place like home.’”

Superintendent of Schools Walter Clemons reflected on April 16, 2011, a day when an EF-1 tornado cut a swath of destruction through Gloucester County, killing two people and decimating the former Page school.

“Tragic as it was, the fact of not having students and staff in that building was a blessing in itself,” Clemons said. “We...