HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District Board of Education will consider requesting a reduction in recapture payments after it says it was left with an unreimbursed balance of over $15 million after Hurricane Harvey.
According to the Texas Education Code, "unreimbursed disaster remediation costs that a school district incurs responding to a disaster allows the district to request a reduction in recapture payments."
The district said as a result of Harvey, more than 200 schools were damaged and "at least 75 schools had major or extensive damage, six schools were relocated, and four campuses are being rebuilt due to significant damage."
After receiving insurance reimbursments and federal grants, the HISD said it has a $15 million tab remaining.
If approved by the Board and the TEA, "the reduction in recapture will go into the district’s unassigned fund balance that was used to reimburse the district’s insurance reserve at the end of the 2017–2018 school year."
The board is also expected to consider selecting a person or group of people to help it with Lone Star Governance and other governance and team-building matters in an effort to improve student performance across the district.
The board will meet Thursday at 5 p.m. to discuss the decision.
Click here for the full agenda. Click here to watch the meeting.