Community Impact reports that following the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Montgomery County, Conroe ISD is considering the possibility of asking for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance because of an estimated $1 million in damage from the storm.
Assistant Superintendent for operations for CISD, Chris McCord, passed along to the board in a July 16th meeting that the district had gotten ready for the storm the day before and the day of the landfall of Beryl on July 8th. He said the “maintenance team” was out the day Beryl arrived “working to restore our buildings and maintain things such as safety.” They did this even when their own homes lost power and were damaged.
Following the storm, the district lost power and communications for several days, and the antiscaling fencing around schools were damaged. Construction projects were impacted on their timeline by storm damage. McCord also said that it’s going to be “significantly expensive” to clean up debris and tree debris.
It was recommended by Chief Financial Officer Karen Garza that, for the fiscal year 2025-26 tax rate, that the board look at using “disaster pennies” to help pay for damage from effects of the storms. A one-time increase of the tax rate is allowed through “disaster pennies” following such emergency events like a hurricane. Describing the “disaster pennies” as a kind of “golden penny,” Garza said that it will allow Texas school districts to add to their tax rate, and have it not be available to be recaptured by the state. She said they have a year to consider doing it.
