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After Epic Meeting, NLISD Cuts Funds for Portable Classrooms

The NLISD is no longer convinced that school buildings considered unsafe are really unsafe.

After a meeting lasting nearly five hours Monday night, the North Lamar Independent School District Board of Trustees decided they will not spend any more money on portable classrooms.

The North Lamar ISD had already invested $600,000 in portable classrooms, based on the idea that two of the district’s schools were unsafe. But a $40,000 engineering study by WJE Engineers  has since cast doubt on whether the portable classrooms were necessary.

A spokeswoman for WJE said that Bailey Intermediate and Higgins Elementary schools are not as dangerous as originally thought. District officials say that for the kind of money the ISD has spent on the portable classrooms, repairs to the school could have been made the buildings entirely safe.

According to the Paris News, the NLISD had planned to house 300 students in portable classrooms following an initial report from Cooper Engineering. That report was based on a worst-case scenario opinion.

District officials plan to revisit the idea of repairing the buildings, but no date for that meeting has been set.

Scott Morgan has been an award-winning journalist since 2001. His work has appeared in several newspapers and magazines as well as online. He has also been an editor, freelancer, speaker, writing teacher, author, and podcaster.