The difficulties of qualifying for reimbursement from FEMA, as well as the greater than expected damage, have prompted school officials to slow down ambitious plans to try to repair several flooded schools quickly.
When the school system’s 77 schools reopen Tuesday, after being closed for more than three weeks, 12 will be operating in new locations. Eight of them are relocating because of flooding, forcing four smaller schools to relocate.
Even a week ago, school officials expressed hope that Twin Oaks Elementary and perhaps Brookstown Middle, both of which flooded, could be repaired quickly and obviate the need to move kids.
But on Tuesday, Twin Oaks students will relocate to three different places far across town, while Brookstown students will share space with Scotlandville Middle school.
Superintendent Warren Drake told the parish School Board on Thursday that he’s still committed to getting Twin Oaks reopened quickly, but the revised estimate is that it won’t be ready to reopen until Oct. 3.
To do the work that fast, the school system will likely have to give up some of the money it could potentially recoup from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has extensive rules about what it will reimburse and under what conditions. He gave an example of a school library.
“Books on the top shelf that came nowhere near water have to be taken care of according to a certain protocol,” Drake said.
Repairs at the other seven flooded schools in the school system, however, are taking the full FEMA reimbursement route. To help navigate FEMA’s process, the school system is soliciting proposals from outside consultants familiar with the federal agency.
Catherine Fletcher, chief business operations officer, told the School Board that school system losses are likely to dwarf the damage the district's schools have sustained from weather events in the past decade.
“You add all those up and multiply by three and you get what may be up on this one,” she said.
Fletcher said the school system is still figuring out the bill and its insurance adjuster is still at work, but $50 million is well below the likely bill.
“We do not know as of yet our total losses,” Fletcher said.
Warren said many school employees have been nonstop since Aug. 12, when schools first closed due to flooding, and are exhausted. He urged the public to be patient as school officials try to sort things out, noting there’s been some trial and error already.
“We’re going to see things every day that we’re going to have to do different,” he said. “Just bear with us while we figure out how to do things right."
Earl Kern, program manager with CSRS/Garrard Program Management, which oversees most school construction for the district, said the things that were flooded that are salvageable, offering metal chairs as an example, are being preserved, but cleaning them may not be worth the time and expense.
“Do you spend $80 to clean a chair when you could buy a new one for $40,” Kern asked rhetorically. “I’m just throwing those numbers out there. That’s a decision the district has to make.”
Several school administrators gave the School Board a detailed, two-hour-long update on all aspects of the reopening of the schools.
One of the big issues has been transportation. School officials have spent around $6 million to buy 68 buses to replace about 100 that were flooded. About 30 drivers are unable to return to work, forcing the use of substitute drivers.
Besides the eight schools that were flooded, 15 more sustained some kind of “moisture intrusion,” largely from air-conditioning problems, but those were apparently resolved by Monday.
Carnell Washington, president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Federation of Teachers, was not persuaded. He noted that the former Banks Elementary, which is being used to temporarily house flooded Glen Oaks Park Elementary, still has issues. He said several union members have spent three days at the school cleaning mold.
“I want to make sure that we don’t have a lot of sick teachers because they are going into mold-and-mildewed schools,” Washington said.
After the presentation, board member Jill Dyason complimented Drake’s leadership.
“It’s been a huge comfort to me to know that you got this,” Dyason said.
“It may look comfortable on the outside,” replied Drake wearily, “but it’s not so comfortable on the inside.”
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