LGISD Considers New Detention Pond to Handle Storm Issues

A day before La Grange received a massive amount of rainfall that caused lots of flooding issues in town, the school board was already looking to fix such problems at last Monday’s school board meeting.

Upgrades to Drainage

Claycomb engineers told the board that the existing drainage system does not appear to be designed to handle a significant storm event. Much of the existing system is failing and some of the corrugated metal pipe along the main storm drainage is in deteriorating condition and has collapsed as verified by an independent engineer with Caliber Forensics. Claycomb engineers rec

Claycomb engineers recommended the drainage for the campus be updated and replaced to address possible flooding in the future. Much of the high school and middle school campus site drainage gathers in the existing system and then exits to the river. The existing storm sewer

The existing storm sewer structure between the stadiums and the river will need to be upgraded in pipe size to receive storm water off of the baseball, football, and softball fields in addition to Vail Street. The new synthetic turf at the football stadium will allow water to drain very efficiently which will also increase the storm water volume and speed.

Claycomb is further recommending that a storm water detention area be developed to capture storm surges and regulate the speed of the exit of the water from the campus. The detention pond feature will not hold water after the storm event as it will empty into the river. This feature will also help with river bank erosion.

Claycomb is estimating that the replacement and upgrades to the existing drainage system will be approximately $645,000.

In Friday’s edition of the newspaper we had a lot of other news from the monthly LGISD board meeting, but here’s even more:

Amendments to the Budget

Three amendments were made to the 2020-21 school budget due to the following incidents:

1. There was water damage to the high school library and cafeteria during the February snowstorm. The cost to repair that damage will be $365,036.58. The school’s insurance will cover that amount minus the $5,000 deductible. To cover this, money will be transferred from Instruction to Facilities Maintenance and Operations.

2. There is a roof leak in the second story weight room at the high school campus. The cost to repair this is $57,236.70. Money will also be transferred from Instruction to Maintenance for this expenditure.

3. There is a need for increased security for the internet usage within and outside of the district. The estimated cost of this would be $15,000. The previous technology director had over budgeted for internet services so there is a surplus that can be transferred from instruction to data processing services to cover this cost.

Teacher Hiring Schedule

Currently the LGISD teacher hiring range is $42,750 - $57,040. A teacher that is new to LGISD is placed within these limits based on existing teacher salaries and years of experience, so hiring is comparable and consistent among teachers, librarians, and nurses.

For La Grange ISD to remain competitive in attracting new teachers to the district, Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) HR services has recommended adjustments to the district’s hiring schedule. A teacher with no experience entering the district would start with a salary of $44,000, an increase of $1,250 to the current LGISD hiring schedule.

The district did not adjust the hiring schedule for this past school year. The top new hire salary would remain at $57,040 with 25 or more years experience.