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By: J.B. Smith

A federal assistance package of $20.8 million likely will allow West Independent School District to replace its explosion- ravaged schools without burdening local taxpayers, district officials said Monday.

The plan eliminates the town’s intermediate school and downsizes the high school but would leave West with more modern and efficient facilities, West ISD Superintendent Marty Crawford said.

A federal disaster declaration late last summer after the April 17 fertilizer explosion opened the door to federal funds for rebuilding the schools. The funding amount was released Monday at a news conference with U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan, and officials with FEMA and state and local government.

“Rep. Flores’ office has been instrumental in getting this passed through,” West Mayor Tommy Muska said. “It was a very pleasant surprise. We’re surprised a lot of the time, but a lot of the time the surprises aren’t good.”

Flores said the funding gets the rebuilding plans out of “limbo” and allows West ISD to meet its goals of opening its schools in late 2015 or early 2016.

“The timing is better than I thought, and the amount is a little higher than I thought,” he said in an interview.

Without the federal disaster declaration, he said, “this community would be in a world of hurt, with a lot tougher road to recovery.”

The school district has submitted a $53 million proof of loss to its insurer for the loss of West High School and West Intermediate School and severe damage to West Middle School.

Crawford said he expects insurance will cover at least $30 million to $35 million, though the district continues to seek more. His goal is to avoid having to squeeze more money out of taxpayers, many of whom still are rebuilding.

“We’re hoping to make all this work through insurance proceeds and federal support,” he said.

The new high school and adjacent middle school would cost $50 million to $60 million. Crawford is not recommending rebuilding West Intermediate School, which housed grades four and five.

West Elementary School would absorb the fourth-graders, and West Middle School would absorb the fifth-graders.

The West ISD school board is set to approve the schematic designs for the new campuses at its 6:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting at the West Administration Office, 801 N. Reagan St.

For now, the intermediate students are housed at the elementary school and the middle school and high school students are sharing temporary FEMA-funded facilities at the old middle school campus.

Much of the middle school complex has been razed, and the original 1923 classroom building remains in disrepair, with gaping windows destroyed in the blast.

Crawford said the future of that building is undecided, but the priority now is to get students out of their crowded temporary quarters.

Crawford said reconfiguring the grades and relocating the middle school next to the high school makes financial sense.

The move would save money on transportation, utilities, administration, maintenance and other overhead. Crawford estimates a savings of $250,000 to $500,000 a year.

Also, the schools could share a new $3 million ballfield-track complex that will be built next door on Jerry Mashek Drive. The athletics complex was approved by voters in 2012, well before the West Fertilizer Co. explosion.

The new high school building would house about 600 students, compared with about 800 at the now-demolished high school campus. The old school never came close to being full, he said.

“We just haven’t had growth like was projected in the ’90s,” he said.

He said the district now has about 440 high-schoolers, about the same as it had before the blast. The new building should provide room to grow for the next couple of decades, Crawford said.

The new middle school will have room for about 400 students, or about 110 more middle-schoolers than the district has now.

Overall, the school district has about 1,420 total enrollment, down slightly from about 1,450 a year ago but well within the usual range of enrollment during the past decade, Crawford said.

He said students have adapted “exceptionally well” to the temporary middle and high school campus, a warren of windowless classrooms connected by boardwalks. But he said everyone is eager to get back to normal.

“Today’s announcement gives them a glimmer of hope,” Crawford said. “It’s the beginning of the end.”

Mason Tobola, a West High School sophomore who was at the track near West Fertilizer Co. when it exploded, said the disaster has brought his school and community together.

“I hope we’ve become stronger in the process,” he said. “It has made people realize that it takes more than one person to make a community.”

Tobola, who runs track and plays football and basketball, said he is looking forward to playing his senior year at the new school.