“We did complete permanent repairs on three of our schools. Whenever we open up on August the 9th, these three schools will have the permanent work completed in their facilities,” said Livingston Parish Public Schools Superintendent Rick Wentzel.
Freshwater Elementary School, Springfield High School and Northside Elementary School will have all permanent repairs completed for this upcoming school year. It has been almost a year since Northside Elementary received a foot of water during the August 2016 flooding. Now, Northside has new paint, floor tiles and cabinets.
“Obviously, that’s an enormous task, and when you multiply that by all the schools we had damaged throughout this parish, there’s no way you can get it all done. We can’t find the people to be able to do it in the timeline that needed to be done in the summer. So, we had to spread that work out a little bit, and unfortunately some of that permanent work will spread all the way up into next summer,” explained Wentzel.
Wentzel said Livingston Public Schools has comes a long way, but thanks to faculty, staff and the community, it can continue with its recovery.
“I am proud to be from this parish. I’ve lived here for 38 years. The tragedy that we went through last year really brought the communities throughout this parish together, and as a result, the resiliency of the people in this parish has been remarkable,” concluded Wentzel.
Five other campuses, including Denham Springs High School, Denham Springs Freshman High, Denham Springs Junior High, Seventh Ward Elementary and Lewis Vincent Elementary, received restoration work this summer, but permanent repairs are not expected to be completed until the summer of 2018.
Denham Springs Elementary, Southside Elementary and Southside Junior High were heavily damaged during the flooding and have not reopened. Officials said they are still working with FEMA to come up so they can come up with a plan for restoration.
Superintendent Wentzel said more than $45 million have gone into flood recovery efforts and repairs. That number does not include summer and future repairs. Officials could see costs around $120 million after everything is completed. FEMA has reimbursed the school district $21 million as of date.