Tropical Storm Harvey hit the Orangefield Independent School District hard last August. Flooding from the storm damaged the Orangefield High School and severely damaged the district’s elementary school.
The school district’s superintendent Dr. Stephen Patterson said Orangefield received $2.5 million in insurance claims which maxed out the district’s flood insurance policy. Patterson indicated the school district is handling the disaster as well as can be expected.
In Patterson’s opinion the school district has bounced back phenomenally from Harvey. Orangefield is at a record high enrollment, the district’s families are here and are supporting the schools. The recovery effort though is painfully slow according to Patterson. “Once you’ve used all of your insurance funds you’re now into a FEMA situation, and when you start working with FEMA and the federal government that procurement process just slows everything down.”
The Orangefield School Board approved the final payment Thursday to Belfor for remediation work the company did on the school buildings in the district. Patterson shared that five months after Harvey all three schools in Orangefield will at least be partially back in use this month.
The Orangefield High School reopened through some handy work by the district’s maintenance department. That facility is presently housing the junior high and high school students. All the elementary aged students are in the Junior High School building. In the coming weeks those classes should be moved back to the Orangefield Elementary School. The district has done some classroom repairs which will allow the First and Second Grades to move back into the building. Orangefield is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to place classrooms in 16 portable buildings on the elementary school campus. “Hopefully, by mid-February, and we may be able to move a few more of our elementary kids over at that point,” Patterson concluded.
Orangefield trustees also approved an application Thursday seeking an attendance waiver from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the two ice days of January 15 and 16 when classes were cancelled. The district should hear back next week if the waiver has been granted by the TEA.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
Officer Eric Heilman and K9 Officer Rico, with the Port Neches Police Department, visited Mrs. Wolfford’s 3rd grade reading classes this week. Officers Heilman and Rico were asked to visit by Lamar University Student Teacher, Ms. LeDoux, as a culminating activity following their reading story, “Aero and Officer Mike, Police Partners”. Students and teachers alike enjoyed learning about Rico and his job duties. They also enjoyed hearing Officer Rico respond to Officer Eric’s commands said in Dutch!
Social Media