A SPLIT SCHOOL REUNITED
Staff and students at Robinson Elementary under one roof for the first time since Harvey
Robinson Elementary hasn’t been whole since Hurricane Harvey.
The floodwaters that gushed through the school’s doors also forced students to attend two adjacent campuses several miles away: Pleasantville Elementary and Holland Middle.
Fourth-graders shared hallways with eighth-graders. Closets were converted into offices. Principal Paige Fernandez-Hohos split her time between those two campuses and the battered Robinson Elementary, scrambling buses in the morning and walking through her old classrooms that lacked insulation and flooring in the afternoons.
But on Monday, the staff and student body were back under one roof for the first time this school year.
Robinson, which cost $6.5 million to repair, on Monday became the first of seven storm-damaged Houston ISD schools to reopen to students.
The district will rebuild four of those damaged schools — including Kolter, Braeburn, Mitchell and Scarborough elementary schools — at a cost of about $126 million. Meanwhile, Liberty High School has been temporarily relocated to Sharpstown High, and Hilliard Elementary is still undergoing renovations.
Fernandez-Hohos said watching students scamper into the
school signaled a new beginning.
“It very much feels like the first day, and it’s nice that it coincides with the new year,” FernandezHohos said. “It’s like a fresh start for everybody.”
Aside from those schools damaged by Harvey and its floodwaters, three other Houston ISD schools also welcomed students for the first time since renovations and reconstruction projects. Sharpstown High School was rebuilt for $62.8 million and Scarborough High was renovated for $14.6 million as part of the district’s 2012 Bond Program. North Forest High School, which was not funded by the bond, opened its new building across the street from its old campus in northwest Houston. The new school cost $59.5 million.
‘We’re just happy’
As students streamed into the reopened Robinson Elementary this week, some walked into classrooms they used last year. Others roamed aimlessly, suddenly strangers in what should have been a familiar school. Teachers and assistant principals were ready to help stragglers get to their correct classrooms.
Students weren’t the only ones feeling lost.
For Whitlee Wyche and her family, little has been normal since they stayed dry perched atop furniture in their flooded Tidwell apartment for three days during Harvey.
They moved to an apartment in the Robinson Elementary School zone; four of her children were then bused from the flooded campus to the dry Pleasantville Elementary and Holland Middle schools.
She said that after so much upheaval, it’s nice to see her students take another step toward normalcy.
“How do y’all feel about going back to this school?” she asked her car full of fidgeting elementary schoolers.
Her kids were suddenly shy, but 5-year-old Paris gave a thumbs up.
At the entrance to the school, special education teacher Evonnu Rasmus could barely contain her excitement. As kids began shuffling into the school’s lobby, she closed her eyes and wrapped several in hugs.
“We’re just happy — almost to the point of tears. We’re so happy to see them back at our school,” Rasmus said. “There’s nothing like home, there’s nothing like home. I’m still trying to hold back the tears. I’m just so happy to see them.”
But not all of the former Robinson Elementary students returned Monday, even though many had registered that morning and in the weeks before winter break.
Fernandez-Hohos said the school usually counts about 700 students, but after the storm, only about 550 returned or enrolled from other schools.
A tough decision
Among those who did not return were Julian and Leila Herrera.
In mid-September, the siblings toured Pleasantville Elementary and Holland Middle to see where Robinson students had been relocated. The family had moved about 30 minutes away from both the original Robinson campus and its relocated classrooms. After only a couple days of rushed commutes, their parents decided to enroll them in a school closer to their temporary home.
Arlett Herrera, Julian and Leila’s mother, said the family had hoped to be back in their flooded home by the holidays. But working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurers has proved more time-consuming and laborious than she imagined.
Next year, Leila will be in fifth grade. Her mom still doesn’t know where Leila will finish elementary school.
“I’m lost,” Herrera said. “Do I keep them there or put them back in Robinson? It will be Leila’s last year, and she made a lot of good friends at Robinson.”