Lynn Walsh

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Lee High School to get up to $1 million in structural repairs
Fri Jul 16 00:15:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Lee High School will be repaired after Houston Independent School District trustees agreed to an emergency use of capital funds at the July board meeting earlier tonight.
The engineering firm Matrix Structural Engineers will lead the project, which could cost up to $1 million, after trustees passed the agenda item unanimously.

HISD administrators have said the school in District VIII is in need of structural repairs. A portion of the school has sunk 9 inches, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said Thursday night.

Grier said this would not be a permanent fix and told trustees that the building will eventually need to be replaced. Grier on Monday questioned whether adding a planned running track to the campus in northwest Houston is the best investment right now. Trustees did not discuss the track Thursday night.

According to HISD, Lee High School was part of the 2007 Bond Program and received $5.5 million for renovation or repair work. The district says some of the work has already been completed but most is still in the design process.

This stabilization project, according to HISD, cannot be paid for with that pool of money, which was for “major building systems/ADA improvements,” not structural renovations.

According to the contract, Matrix will be responsible for obtaining contractors to stabilize the structure, continually monitoring the structural stability of the high school and assisting HISD in evaluating contractor proposals.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Trustee Diana Dávila resigned. Find more background in this Houston Chronicle piece, and view video of Dávila’s statement below.