TEXAS — Similar to other districts across the state, Dallas Independent School District buildings sustained significant storm damage as a result of last week’s unprecedented winter weather event. But, after working around the clock to get schools back in proper condition to welcome faculty, students and staff, it reopened for in-person instruction Wednesday.
“I’ve seen a band hall that was pretty much taken out that they had to excavate using water excavation techniques,” said Dallas ISD director of News and Information, Robyn Harris of E.D. Walker Middle School in North Dallas.
In total, 125 campuses felt the impact of the storm that left homes, apartments and businesses in the same shape throughout the state. According to Harris, damage ranged from minor to much more severe, including bursting pipes and flooding. Lincoln High School, Bryan Adams High School, J.P. Starks Math, Science and Technology Vanguard and Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School remained closed throughout the week as more work needed to be completed on the schools causing students to go to 100 % virtual learning. Harris noted that administration was aware of the threat of potentially bad weather, but was unsure if turning off water at schools was an option to help prevent severe damage.
“We are one of those districts who has decades and, in certain instances, centuries old campuses,” Harris said. Just because we have older buildings a lot of aging-- 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 years-- that have been around it’s more so less to do with the mitigation efforts that were potentially attempted. But, it really has to do with just the right recipe for this type of reaction with facilities as old as ours.”
The cost of repairs remains unknown at this time. However, as the one of the largest school districts in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, Dallas ISD used their own resources to get school back up and running.
“We are a pretty solid district fiscally and these were the efforts of our own in-house and essential workers from our maintenance and operations crews who have come out,” Harris said. “Because we are a truly a billion-dollar company or organization, we’ve been in a position where we haven’t had to seek additional resources or additional mechanisms to be able to support any kind of renovation projects.”
In a meeting earlier this week, education commissioner Mike Morath stated the extent of damaged schools was not yet known. He told legislators that more information could be assessed next month when districts submit survey responses. In the Richardson Independent School District, 45 out of 55 schools had varying degrees of damage with most being water and HVAC related. Hamilton Park Pacesetter Magnet and Math Science Technology Magnet re-opened for in-person classes Tuesday while Richardson High School allowed students to come back Wednesday.
“We had a four-inch water pipe that is under the original foundation of Richardson High School over in the kitchen area that had a break two weeks ago,” said Sandra Hayes, Richardson ISD assistant superintendent of Operations, in a board of trustees meeting Monday evening. “And so, we did a temporary fix on that knowing that once the temperatures got up and we had time to get a company out we’d have to dig out almost a third of the foundation area under the kitchen in order to show that entire pipe to fix it, because of the integrity of the pipe, because it’s now been stressed. During the winter storm, that patch broke and also at Richardson High School our fire sprinkler system had a break in it.”
Tim Clark, executive director of communications, said crews began working Thursday of last week to prepare campuses for the return of students and staff. Right now, the total amount of costs associated with services and repairs to the more than 40 buildings impacted remains unknown. But, the district plans to submit info to see if it qualifies for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“We are just collecting all the required documentation for the disaster declaration that Gov. Greg Abbott has and came from the federal government,” said Hayes. “We do have some large deductibles, so we have not really been able to put numbers yet to all of the repairs. We will be doing that this week.”
Spectrum News 1 Texas reached out to Fort Worth, Plano and Arlington Independent School District’s for a status on the buildings in its district, but did not hear back from either before the publication of this article.
Further south, Austin Independent School District also saw broken water and supply lines, flooding and downed HVAC systems to more than 100 buildings. The damage prompted officials to close schools Monday and Tuesday, return to remote learning Wednesday and Thursday and end the week with a previously scheduled asynchronous Friday. March 1 is when face-to-face classes will resume for those who choose to attend. In a statement, Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde said she knew families needed more time to recover from days without power, water and food before returning to “some regular routines.”
“Many have broken and frozen water pipes that have produced flooding, have little to no water pressure, or have no water at all,” said Elizalde of multiple campuses. “Some of our schools still do not have power or internet access. Our staff are (sic) currently assessing school buildings and it will take some time to resolve the issues they find.”
After evaluating campuses, San Antonio Independent School District opened Monday. In a post on Facebook, the district told parents and students that it didn’t see any issues preventing schools from opening to normal instruction.
“Please know we will have comfortable and safe facilities,” the post read. Our buildings will be warm. And, on our campuses, child nutrition staff will boil all water needed for food preparation until our community receives an update from the San Antonio Water System that the water supply is safe. We also will have bottled, drinking water available for everyone at our schools.”