Refugio ISD receives assistance from Salado ISD to rebuild and overcome the hurricane devastation
Even when Hurricane Harvey seems like a distant memory, the students, teachers and community in the small, rural coastal town of Refugio, are still dealing with the ramifications. For the last 10 months, Refugio ISD educators have balanced meeting the basic needs of students, rebuilding homes and schools, and supporting traumatized students while providing some normalcy through school activities.
Refugio ISD is still in survival mode. Every school building was damaged. Some buildings are still not accessible, so teachers are using makeshift classrooms. Refugio ISD has not received any FEMA or insurance assistance as of last month. 95% of students in Refugio are considered homeless and 78% of the students qualify for free/reduced lunch assistance.
While life is still difficult, the educators, students and community are full of hope, gratitude and resolve to move forward.
Our Region 12 Education Service Center is asking our local school districts to join together to give them a fresh start. This campaign is to replenish the school’s library and classrooms with new books and instructional materials.
Our Salado School District had the opportunity to help support this effort last month. Every year we clear out some of our used library books to make room for new library books. This year we cleared our even more used books than usual from our high school library to make room for additional computers. I drove my pickup truck and a trailer full of these used books to Refugio on May 24 and delivered them to the superintendent and high school principal.
Thank you to the following employees that helped box up the books and/or load the truck and trailer:
Dan Agee, transportation director
Bobbette Bell, high school librarian
Scotty Dockray, mechanic
Randy Drewry, maintenance worker
Brandon Hollas, maintenance worker
Jay Killingsworth, maintenance worker
Kathy Keyes, junior high school library aide
Tiffany Learn, elementary school library aide
Larry Moore, maintenance/custodial director
Megan Rodeffer, intermediate school library