On July 8, the storm brought wind and rain to the region, which caused some district roofs to peel up and 77 of 107 facilities to be without power, Chief Operations Officer Damian Viltz said.
Compared to previous storms, such as Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 or Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, Beryl caused less damage to FBISD facilities, Viltz said. Harvey caused significant water damage to 60 campuses as well as broken windows and damages to roofs.
“Even though [Beryl] was a [Category 1 hurricane], those high winds really impacted us, but we didn’t have any flooding, and it was definitely not to the magnitude of Harvey,” he said.
The details
When the district's maintenance and operations staff assessed buildings the morning of July 9, they found collapsed canopies, fallen trees and other damages to roofs and portable classroom buildings, Viltz said. However, staff have worked quickly to complete repairs before the school year starts.
“Most [buildings] are ready to accept students right now," he said. “We have a couple that we’re doing some carpet or minor roof work, but all of them will be ready before the start of school.”
The district’s administration building at 16431 Lexington Blvd., Sugar Land, suffered the most damage, as wind damaged the roof, which brought water into the third floor. Staff have temporarily relocated to other district facilities while repairs can be made, Viltz said.
Zooming in
Due to Beryl's impact on the district, FBISD canceled the last weeks of summer courses for students receiving multilingual and special education coursework.
FBISD canceled the last six days of coursework for the special education summer program, which aims to maintain skills students have already mastered, affecting approximately 950 students, district officials said in an email.
Meanwhile, the district’s Elementary Multilingual Summer School program for emerging bilingual students lost two of its five-week program, officials said. The program, which served 425 students at the end of the third week, is meant to provide language development instruction for students entering kindergarten or first grade.
Officials said staff will assess students’ progress after the first nine weeks of school to see if additional intervention and support is needed. However, officials said they believe the emerging bilingual students will gain the skills they need at the start of the school year to supplement the instruction lost from Beryl.
What's next
District staff are still assessing the financial hit from the storm, but Fort Bend County’s disaster declaration coupled with U.S. President Joe Biden’s declaration will allow FBISD to access federal disaster funding, Viltz said.
“I do want to acknowledge [the staff's] efforts because they left homes without power; they left homes ... [where] they had trees down; they had fences blown away, but they came to work to make sure that the school district was ready to function,” he said.
