‘It’s so good to be home’ at fixed Kingwood High
School damaged by flooding reopens to students’ delight
As flood-damaged Kingwood High School was being restored over recent months, Trey Kraemer, Humble ISD assistant superintendent, was asked whether students would be able to notice a difference between their pre-Hurricane Harvey campus and the renovated school.
The answer was yes, Kraemer said.
On Monday, his prediction proved true. About 2,700 students arrived for the first day of school at their newly restored campus and couldn’t help but notice the new wood-like tile flooring and brick textured walls, junior student Hannah Cook said. However, the new flooring isn’t just about appearances, said Kraemer, it’s also more practical.
“We really tried to put something in there that was going to look nice, but also last a long time,” Kraemer said. “Carpet has to be replaced, repaired and the stuff that’s going in there now, the life expectancy of those kind of things are a little bit longer than they would be just on the carpet, and they’re easier to clean.”
Students and staff of Kingwood High for the past 27 weeks shared a campus with Summer Creek High School. Returning to their home campus has been an emotional experience for some students, said Mark Scalia, a U.S. history teacher.
“It’s like Christmas morning walking around. … I had a student who came in this morning who said when they walked in the door, they started crying because it’s so good to be home,” Scalia said. “I think that says something about the way they feel about their school.”
Kingwood High School’s first floor and six inches of the second floor took on water due to flooding during Harvey. The damage was so extensive that originally, the school district did not believe Kingwood students would return to their campus before the end of the school year.
“We always wanted that, but we didn’t want to promise it because we just really thought it was not likely,” said Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen. “But, once we moved from remediation — that first $10.5 million; into reconstruction — the next $53 million; and we started to see the progress and the contractor started to really get their arms around when the materials would be in and that kind of thing, we really started to see that it was going to be possible.”
While Kingwood High was shut down for restoration, the district tried to use that time to ready the building not just for classes to resume, but also to ready the building for the future, Kraemer said.
One of the most notable enhancements to the restored campus is its amped-up security.
The main entryway will now have a security vestibule, whereas in the past, people were able to walk directly through the entrance into the main building. The vestibule will increase Kingwood High School’s ability to monitor and control the traffic entering the school.
Also, Kingwood High School features an updated security camera system and enhanced Wi-Fi.
“There was a balance we had to strike in this building of moving it forward quickly but also making some small changes that were cost-effective and just made sense to improve the building,” Fagen said.
First-floor areas including the athletics areas, fine arts areas, administrative office spaces, special education classrooms and career and technology areas were restored to their original formats and replaced with all new contents.
“Anywhere we could make space modifications, meaning that if we had an existing space and we could make it more userfriendly, then we certainly took the opportunity to do that,” Kraemer said. “But, no walls were knocked down. …We’re not making major modifications. In working with our insurance companies, in working with FEMA and so on, we were very careful to go in and put it back the way it was pre-Harvey.”
Auditorium seating has been installed in the Performing Arts Center. Students will still have access to the area, but it is not yet performance ready.
The gym floors are done and accessible for use, but are not immediately competition-ready.
Athletic fields including the track, football field, baseball field, softball field and tennis courts have been brought to practice standards, but are also not yet competition-ready.
Work is also continuing on the field house; which students will have access to as work progresses.
The only athletics area students and staff will not have access to is the swimming pool, which is still under construction. Arrangements have been made for Kingwood High School swimmers to share the Kingwood Park High School swimming facility.
Kingwood High School has been restored to a point at which it is serviceable for students and staff, Kraemer said, including the mechanical aspects like air conditioning and utilizable classroom space.
There are still many things that are a work in progress, but the school district feels there will be limited, to no interruptions to students’ instructional day.
“The contractors will still be on site and be doing work after hours, after afternoon hours and then they will also be working at night, and they could be working on the weekends, too, in order to finish everything,” Kraemer said.
The entirety of Kingwood High School is expected to be complete prior to the start of the 2018-2019 school year.