PAISD repairs continue as board considers DoI
Published 1:31 pm Friday, October 27, 2017
By Lorenzo Salinas
Reconstruction in the wake of Harvey continues slowly but surely for the Port Arthur Independent School District—though if one were to ask superintendent Mark Porterie, the operative word would be “cautiously” not slowly.
The board of trustees held their regular meeting Thursday evening in the cafeteria of Memorial High School. Porterie gave an update of Harvey-related repairs to the board.
“We’re excited about the progress we’re making,” he said. “I think everything is going well.”
In speaking about the administration building and Lucien Adams Elementary, the two PAISD buildings that had sustained the most damages from Harvey, Porterie said progress was good but workers are still finding new issues with the facilities as time goes on.
“With (Hurricanes) Rita and Ike, we only had wind damage. Porterie said. “Wind is totally different from water.”
As a result, completion of repairs and re-occupation of Adams Elementary was estimated during middle or late spring, according to Porterie.
“A lot needs to be done,” he said.
Porterie remarked that remediation at both Adams and the administration building was complete. In fact, he called the remediation job URI did for the district as “magnificent.”
URI, or Unlimited Restoration, Inc., is the contractor PAISD hired to clean out the buildings and to make them sanitary again. For the next phase—the actual reconstruction—PAISD will be seeking out bids from a different contractor or contractors for the two facilities.
Porterie was quick to praise Adams students, staff and parents for their adaptation to their new school environments at Dick Dowling and Booker T. Washington Elementary Schools. He commended all staff and students.
“This has been a learning curve for us, but everything is going well,” he said.
Porterie mentioned that smaller damages had been found at other PAISD facilities, and that public adjustors and hygienists were on site to inspect those facilities, look for any moisture leaks and make roof assessments.
“Some people may say we’re moving slowly,” Porterie said in regards to repair work. “I say we’re not moving slowly. We want to move cautiously and make sure everything is done properly.”
In other agenda items, Porterie said the district is looking to secure District of Innovation (DoI) status for certain provisions like an earlier start date for school.
The District of Innovation concept, passed by the 84th Legislative Session in House Bill 1842, gives traditional school districts much of the flexibilities available to the state’s open-enrollment charter schools.
Porterie said it’s a long process to get approved, one that involves public notice, several meetings and lengthy wait times. It would be a process measured in months, not weeks.
He said PAISD already practices many of the tenets a District of Innovation allows.
When trustee Kenneth Lofton Sr. asked how a DoI would help students, Porterie cited provisions like class size and the start of class times as items PAISD could tailor better to its students.
“There are certain things we can do,” Porterie said. “Anything we can do to improve the quality of education for our students. … Anything we do is for the betterment of Port Arthur Independent School District.”
During the consent agenda, all items were approved with the exception of Item 7 (Purchase of a replacement ASAP vehicle from Rockdale Country Ford), which was pulled from the agenda, and Items 13 and 14 (Contractual agreement from Harrison Kornberg and Architects Studio, Alam Farias respectively).
Items 13 and 14 concerned contractual agreements with two architect firms for Harvey-related damages at the administration building and Adams Elementary (13) and Memorial High School Tenplex (14).
Porterie wished for the two architects to draw plans for all damaged facilities within the district.
Average daily attendance is 97 percent and enrollment by month is 81.16 percent, Porterie reported.
