HOUSTON – Texas’ record drought is having a big impact on buildings within the Houston Independent School District.
Park Place Elementary in southeast Houston is one of a dozen campuses that have requested that HISD take a closer look at structural concerns due to the drought. Minor repairs – like patching cracks to make sure no moisture gets in – have been completed there over the past few days.
“So far, everything we’ve seen has not become a safety issue,” said Issa Dadoush, the director of HISD’s construction and facility services department. “We want to monitor them, so we can address them. You can’t just ignore it.”
At Crespo Elementary, the dry ground has actually separated from the foundation in certain places. There are visible cracks both inside and outside classrooms.
HISD said some of the smaller cracks will cost about $10,000 to repair. But larger issues, such as ground shifting at an HISD police building, will run about $600,000.
Dadoush said this has all happened within the past 45 days – an unfortunate result of weeks of triple-digit temperatures and virtually no rain.
Paula Harris, HISD’s school board president, said the drought will factor in to budget negotiations for the next fiscal year. While the district has a plan in place for unexpected school repairs, she said, the historic nature of the drought will have an impact.
Harris said she was hopeful a lot of the repairs would be covered by insurance, while Dadoush said it was too early to tell exactly how much the drought damage would ultimately cost taxpayers.
