BRENHAM ISD ADDRESSING ROOF, WATER DAMAGE AT MULTIPLE CAMPUSES AFTER WEATHER EVENTS
Several Brenham ISD facilities are undergoing maintenance and repairs after heavy rain and storms that began last month.
active leaks in the roof.
(photos via Belfor, courtesy Brenham ISD)
Following a hailstorm and continued rainfall, major roof and interior water damage were discovered at Brenham Middle School and Brenham Junior High School, with damage also reported at Krause Elementary School and the Early Childhood Learning Center. Emergency repairs are underway to dry out the inside of campus facilities that took on excessive moisture and apply protective roof coatings to prevent further water intrusion.
Brenham ISD trustees learned about the state of the affected campuses during their meeting on Monday, receiving reports from Belfor Property Restoration and Parsons Roofing. Parsons Roofing sales representative Jeff Strain said the eventual plan will be to replace all of the damaged roofs.
The elastomeric coating that will be applied to the roofs can last for up to a year. This will allow time for district officials to determine what their path forward will be for obtaining replacement roofs.
Brenham Middle School ceilings and wall cavities,
using thermal mapping.
(photo via Belfor, courtesy Brenham ISD)
The time allowed by the coating will also let the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), the district’s insurance carrier, run numbers and assess damages after it provided the district with funding to get the emergency repairs started. Brenham ISD carries a $1 million insurance deductible. The final scope and quote for the emergency repairs is expected to be shared with the board at its next scheduled meeting.
Board President Jared Krenek asked if the campus facilities would be taken care of by the time teachers come back to prepare for the start of school. Belfor Project Manager Aaron Doelitsch said the goal is to have all affected buildings ready by early August, and that crews will work nonstop to make that happen.
Summer programs, like Brenham ISD’s summer meal program, had to be moved to Brenham Elementary School as the roof repair and water mitigation efforts continue.
Krenek said after seeing the damage this widespread, the district has to do something shortly to address it, or else it will continue to face the same problem later on. Superintendent Clay Gillentine thanked the representatives from Belfor and Parsons for their quick work thus far, and Gillentine and Trustee Shawn Koonce commended the district’s staff members for their flexibility through this transition.
If superintendent cannot handle maintenance of buildings and property; they are unfit for the job. Fire them!! Have you seen the rust on the high school porch columns??
The district doesn’t even know what a paint brush is!! But responsible ceo keeps getting pay raises. Not doing your job is felony theft from the tax payers!! Fire them!! Why pay someone who doesn’t do their job and steals from the taxpayers?? Principals that fail to maintain their schools are just as guilty for the same crimes!!
The district has painters that there paying top wages for but they assigned them to elementary schools to move furniture and change out ceiling tile. They did the same thing with a licensed HVAC Tech.
Poor management
If we can’t get a bond passed to replace the junior high, we need a bond to do renovations. I don’t think the public know how bad the kids have it. These schools are falling apart and we have no money to fix them. There is a certain point where an old building costs more to upkeep than building new. We are there now with the Junior High and Pride buildings, and a few other campuses are getting closer to that.
If you want to know why the teachers and support staff haven’t gotten raises in 2+ years, just look at the pictures above. Raise school taxes to fix these schools and pay teachers and support staff correctly, or pass a bill to repair the schools. The citizens of Brenham need to know when they vote against a bond, this is the environment their kids and grandkids are learning in.
All the new construction and higher appraisals in the county the money is there just not going to fund the right pet project
Two points.
One: The current maintenance department has been reduced to the point of providing reactive maintenance rather than preventive maintenance.
There is no thought or plan for a professionally trained staff of skilled tradesmen.
Two: Brenham ISD should start planning on building a new High school and stop planning on a new JR High. WHATEVER it takes to do it.
Make the existing high school a JR High, 6th, 7th and 8th grade.
Turn the existing middle school into an elementary school.
Seems like the district needs a facility manager. If they do decide to hire one again they should have a degree in mechanical engineering and project management experience not a teaching certificate.
I worked for Brenham ISD. The maintenance crew doesn’t do preventative maintenance at all and when something is broken they ‘band-aid’ fix it. It we had people actually doing their jobs properly we wouldn’t have so many issues.
Did the district postponed regular roof maintenance and repair? And for how long? Asking for a teacher friend.