Right now, the district's transportation, shipping and receiving and maintenance departments are scattered across Port Arthur, but the district wants to centralize those offices, among others, into one location, Geans said. There is approximately $42 million left to be spent with a couple major projects to be completed, including the Support Service Center.Īnd other final phase have already been completed, such as renovations at Memorial Stadium and a new running track at Lincoln Middle School. RELATED: Port Arthur's Memorial Stadium getting major upgradesįor example, putting terrazzo flooring in the new buildings might be ideal, but it's more expensive, leading the district to choose a cheaper, yet still substantial, flooring to provide the same results at a lower cost. "What we try to do is to look and see what can we eliminate or modify in order to still stay within our bond? We've been real successful in cutting down, making changes, but staying within the dollars that were allocated for the purposes of the bond." but escalation now is even greater," she said. "We included some escalation (in the bond) because that went to the voters in 2014. The pandemic not only delayed the timeline to complete some projects due to supply chain issues, but also saw the cost of materials increase, Geans said. So, we lost building materials and had to replace those," she said. "We were still building on the 9th Grade Center at the time of Harvey.
"We had some damages, quite a bit of damages, when (Tropical Storm) Harvey hit," she said, adding that the district's administration building, housed in the former Career and Technology Center, suffered some of the worst damage as all the flooring needed to be replaced. Tropical weather and the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench or two in the district's plans, primarily by delaying progress on certain projects, Geans said. RELATED: 'Nothing is a failsafe:' Port Arthur schools police officers detail security Renovations to Wilson were completed about a week prior to Tropical Storm Harvey's landfall in Southeast Texas in 2017. Wilson Early College High School was renovated from an "older campus" to a "new, modern-looking facility" that had better functioning classrooms and labs for students, Geans said. Other renovations to the campus, such as in the cafeteria, are set to be completed in the current final project phase, Geans said. Tyrrell Elementary in 2017 saw the construction of a new library. Since 2014, renovations have taken place across several campuses, including the installation of energy efficient equipment expected to lower maintenance costs. "We upgraded our infrastructure quite a bit - a new phone system, new computers, new lighting, cameras. "Our technology infrastructure was really outdated," Geans said.
Get it done transportation upgrade#
With the funding, the district had an opportunity to upgrade previously-overlooked areas, such as purchasing 31 new buses for $3 million and making "significant upgrades" to the district's technology infrastructure. Persistent maintenance issues were becoming a nuisance for the district, necessitating the bond. The district was growing and had last seen a bond in 2007, Geans said. RELATED: 7 questions with.Port Arthur ISD Superintendent Mark Porterie When they ran out of room and needed labs, portables were used for that purpose as well. So, we didn't have room for them," Geans said. "We had a school that was designed for maybe 400 or 500 (students), and then we had almost 1,000 students.
Get it done transportation portable#
The bond's main goal was to eliminate the 53 portable buildings functioning as classrooms for the Sam Houston and Tyrrell elementary campuses, district Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Phyllis Geans told The Enterprise.
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