HISD seeks to rebuild 4 flooded schools
Trustees to vote on $126 million plan to construct new elevated campuses
Houston ISD officials are proposing to tear down four elementary schools ravaged by Hurricane Harvey and rebuild them — a plan that would keep students out of their home campuses until at least 2020.
Students at Braeburn, Kolter, Mitchell and Scarborough elementary schools would return to new, elevated campuses on the same sites as the current facilities, according to a plan unveiled Monday. The district’s board of trustees is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to approve funding for the $126 million proposal.
If passed, Houston ISD would become the first district in the region to approve demolition of a school following Harvey. All other local districts with heavily damaged schools, including Humble, Katy and Sheldon ISDs, have opted to repair existing buildings.
The four Houston schools sustained catastrophic
Officials aim to open the new schools in January 2020. The almost 3,000 displaced students will continue to use temporary sites.
flood damage after Harvey pummeled the area in late August, dropping record amounts of rain.
District officials decided to start from scratch due to the extent of damage, the age of the buildings and the need to elevate the campuses to avoid future flooding, Houston ISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby said. The campuses were built between 1956 and 1966, when local building codes didn’t require higher elevations inside floodplains.
“At the end of the day, this just makes a whole lot of sense from all angles,” Busby said. “Throwing good money at old buildings is just not considered wise in the long term. These schools not only had issues related to Harvey, but we were also working with issues unrelated to Harvey on routine maintenance.”
District officials aim to open the new campuses in January 2020. In the meantime, students at the shuttered schools — which served 2,870 kids in the 2016-17 school year— will continue to attend classes at temporary locations.
Busby said it’s “pretty definitive” that students at Mitchell Elementary School, located on the city’s south side, and Scarborough Elementary School, on the city’s north side, will remain at their temporary campuses.
But administrators are having preliminary discussions about whether to move students from Braeburn and Kolter elementary schools, on the city’s southwest side, into different temporary facilities. Students from Braeburn and Kolter travel 11 and four miles, respectively, to their current campuses. Busby said a decision will likely be made in the coming months.
Houston ISD Trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones, whose district includes Scarborough Elementary School, described the proposal as the “best-case scenario” given the extent of damage.
“I wish it didn’t have to be done, but certainly it’s our responsibility to make these communities whole,” Skillern-Jones said.
Using rainy day reserves
District officials estimate each school will cost up to $30 million to demolish and reconstruct. The campuses will look virtually identical, using a single design to cut down on costs and construction timelines.
Houston ISD administrators expect the costs will be covered through a combination of insurance payouts, federal emergency management funds and state aid. But it will likely take years to get the money, so the district plans to use $70 million in Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone funds — which are revenues generated by increases in tax collections — and $56 million from its rainy day reserves.
Busby said the district has already spent about $80 million on Harvey-related costs to date. The district projected to have well over $200 million in rainy day funds at the end of fiscal 2017-18, giving it enough cushion to pay for the new construction.
Trustee Mike Lunceford, whose district includes Braeburn and Kolter elementary schools, said decisions about rebuilding schools should be made now, rather than waiting for insurance and government reimbursement. He said he’s supportive of the district’s plan, though he has a few questions about the cost and a separate proposal to change the district’s policies for maintaining reserve funds.
“A lot of people are talking to me, asking if we’re going to rebuild the schools,” Lunceford said. “They definitely need to be rebuilt. Both schools (in my district) have more-than-adequate population.”
Lunceford added he’s hopeful the district will find a more convenient temporary location for Braeburn students, who are traveling 11 miles each day to the old DeBakey High School.
Other sites renovated
Three other Houston ISD schools that remain closed wouldn’t be demolished under the plan. Students are expected to return to Robinson Elementary School after the winter break, district officials said, and renovations at Hilliard Elementary are ongoing. Houston ISD leased the building that was home to Liberty High School, and administrators are considering plans for a future campus.
Repairs are already underway at other heavily-damaged schools outside of Houston ISD. Humble ISD officials have said they expect repairs to Kingwood High School to cost more than $70 million, with the goal of reopening the campus in mid-March. Sheldon ISD aims to reopen C.E. King middle and high schools, which sit on the same property, after the winter break. Katy ISD board trustees were scheduled to vote Monday night on authorizing a $5 million construction contract for repairs to Creech Elementary School.