Are you ready if a hurricane strikes?
School buildings can take a wallop
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Pulverized PHOTO COURTESY OF PATRICK PARKER A Port Aransas school building stands in shambles after being ripped apart by Hurricane Celia. The building which housed kindergarten classes and a band hall, stood across Station Street from present-day Port Aransas High School. After Celia damaged it, the building was torn down and replaced by a similar building that now is used by the PAISD's maintenance department.

If a hurricane wrecks Port Aransas, getting the town's schools running again will be a top priority for Superintendent Billy Wiggins - but not just so local children can continue their educations.

News of functioning schools serves as a signal to displaced residents that it's all right to come back to a storm-devastated community to begin rebuilding.

"If schools are running, it means the infrastructure of a community is still running," Wiggins said.

Storms are addressed in PAISD's emergency procedures manual. The manual says the superintendent will make the decision on when schools should be closed due to weather.

While the decision rests with Wiggins, "it's really not as subjective as you might think," he said.

As a hurricane approaches, the superintendent would decide when to close schools after coming to a consensus with city officials, weather authorities, state officials and others, Wiggins said.

Wiggins said he believes PAISD's school buildings are in good shape and could take a good wallop. But no one knows if they could withstand the hardest punch of a Category 5 hurricane. All school officials can do is board their windows and hope for the best.

School maintenance workers already have plywood storm shutters custom cut for every window in every building in the district, said John Dreiling, director of maintenance and transportation at PAISD. It takes three or four crews of three or four people two and a half days to put up all the shutters, Dreiling said.

After a hurricane, the superintendent will declare classes back in session once school buildings are deemed safe and utilities are running again, Wiggins said.

The school district would depend on newspaper, television, radio, the district's Web site and word of mouth to alert residents when a date is set for classes to begin again, Wiggins said.

The principals of H.G. Olsen Elementary School, Brundrett Middle School and Port Aransas High School have emergency phone numbers they can call to let all of their employees know when classes are to resume.

In each year's school calendar, PAISD always reserves two floating days in which classes can be cancelled in case of bad weather. If weather doesn't cause classes to be cancelled in a given year, the two days are used as holidays.

If classes are cancelled for more than two days due to a hurricane, classes could be made up on weekends or during the summer, Wiggins said.

State law requires public schools to hold 180 days of classes each year, but the commissioner of education can waive that requirement if something extraordinary like a hurricane happens.