By Emily Burleigh

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, visited Barbe High School on Monday to see in person remaining repairs needed from Hurricanes Laura and Delta.

“Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana have been incredibly resilient following Hurricane Laura,” Cassidy said in a news release. “But they still need our assistance. We have and will continue to do everything possible to help this region make a full recovery.”

“We certainly appreciate Sen. Cassidy coming,” stated Karl Bruchhaus, Calcasieu Superintendent of Education.

“We’re at the point in hurricane recovery where anybody who can help us, we welcome the opportunity to talk to them, and Sen, Cassidy certainly has that ability.”

Delays of FEMA funding have been sustained because of the restrictive assessment process.

“It’s the executive branch that makes the decisions on when to release the money,” Cassidy said. “What I can do as a senator is call him up and say, ‘Wait a second. You know you have to verify the information, but the information is there.’”

Only a handful of assessors have been sent to assess schools. A majority of damage appraisal has been conducted virtually. This has dramatically delayed the process of FEMA distributing funds.

“My hope is that FEMA can release those dollars sooner to keep the money in the pipeline so that the work that is ongoing continues,” he said. “Ideally those dollars are available and the rest of this work can be committed before kids can come to school come August.”

Bruchhaus is eager to get to work. “We have $260 million to do in permanent construction.” $150 million in borrowed funds has already been utilized.

The construction at Barbe is broken down into three main projects. Eight million is allocated for roofing damages and $2 million for renting modular buildings. The remaining funds will include ceiling repairs, flooring repairs and content.

These construction projects have not been bid out yet. Bruchhaus stated the parish does not have the funds yet to begin that process. “We are still waiting on reimbursement for our first projects from FEMA. Until we get those we can’t bid out anything else. Sulphur High School, for example, is a huge $20 plus million dollar project. We haven’t bid anything there.”

Time is of the essence to receive reimbursement from FEMA. Hurricane related contracts are drafted differently, stated Bruchhaus. In these contracts, the School Board has the ability to stop construction for a 60-day period. If the School Board is unable to restart the project in those 60 days, contractors are able to back out of the contract.

At its current state, the Calcasieu Parish School Board will not be able to continue construction due to a lack of funds.

“We are very worried that without some reimbursement, at some point this summer, we’re not going to have the money to continue the construction that is going on now,” he said. “It’s crucial that people like Sen. Cassidy are here allowing us to speak with him and share our concerns.”

“This would force us to rebid everything at higher rates than what is in effect now, and ultimately cost us and cost FEMA more money at the end of the day, so, this is a bit of urgency.”

A priority for legislators and administrators is to ensure that Calcasieu Parish students have a meaningful experience during their grade school years.

“We’ve got a challenge, where because of the pandemic, and in Louisiana because of the storms, we’ve had kids who have missed valuable education experience,” said Dr. Cassidy. “They’ve gotten to where they are serviceable, that children can attend school, but they can’t have (in some schools) a home basketball game.”

“It certainly worries us, over the last three years, having to deal with COVID and hurricanes,” said Bruchhaus. “We want to put them back into a position that when they graduate from high school, they can look back and truly say they have the same degree that kids would have had in the past.”

Dr. Cassidy is optimistic for the future of Calcasieu Parish.

“They can look at the progress that this community has made in the two years and know that we’ll get better,” he said. “Frankly, this community can look at a place like Livingston Parish, which is cutting ribbons on schools after the 2016 floods, to understand we are going to go from here to something even better yet.”

There has been concern on the School Board’s part regarding the attention that Southwest Louisiana has received from FEMA.

“When you’re dealing with federal agencies, there always seems to be a point where we are removed here in Southwest Louisiana,” he said. “We sort of feel alone sometimes.”

“I think we had that feeling, and that it took a long time to get going. Now, we’re just pushing to try and get it moving.”