Hurricane Harvey: Schools In Hard-Hit Rockport, Texas, Closed 'Indefinitely'

ROCKPORT, TX — In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, all Rockport, Texas-based schools at the Aransas County ISD have been closed "indefinitely," the district superintendent said.

Children are being transferred to schools in other districts as a result, upending their normal routines in the middle of the academic year.

'We have just received our formal damage assessment and it has been decided that school will be closed indefinitely," Superintendent Joseph Patek wrote on the district's website. "All students displaced by this disaster will be accepted at other districts in Texas and ACISD will do everything we can to make sure records are sent."

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The superintendent noted displaced students would receive free lunch at their new schools: “Your student is now also eligible for homeless services which include free lunch. Please make sure and visit with the receiving district personnel when enrolling for more details.”

In a region hard hit by Hurricane Harvey, even word choice in urgent missives sets off alarms to a community on edge. In a subsequent post on Facebook, Patek explained the use of his word "indefinite" in describing the status of area schools while altering parents of his aim at transparency.

Crews were frantically repairing damaged school buildings, Patek noted. He urged parents to enroll their children in other schools as soon as possible to mitigate the disruption in their schooling.

"We have an amazing team beginning work on repairs so we can open school as quickly and safely as possible," the superintendent said. "We know parents are concerned about their children's education and emotional well-being as are we. We encourage those parents/guardians that have the ability to go ahead and enroll your student in a school district where you are currently staying or where you have family."

He urged parents to monitor the district on Facebook and the Aransas County school district's website for updates. But he didn't sugarcoat the situation, saying no timeline is known as to when things might return to normal.

"We do not have a timeline for how long the recovery process will take," he wrote. "We must first have drinkable water and power. After that, we must ensure our facilities are safe and then we will be able to allow teaching staff in the buildings to look at their needs for supplies. All of this takes time and each step must happen in a very specific manner.

"It is my intent to keep our entire community as up-to-date as possible with the very best information I have when I have it. I promise you all, we will not wait one day longer than necessary to bring our students back through the doors of all of our campuses in ACISD."

The Aransas County ISD is based in Rockport, a city that is among the hardest hit by a hurricane that later inflicted great damage in its tropical storm form. It was here where Harvey made landfall last Friday as a Category 3 hurricane, but it was the resulting tropical storm that inflicted damage on the community.

Aransas County ISD is an independent county-wide school system serving a 486 square mile area including the communities of Holiday Beach, Lamar, Fulton, Rockport and the northern part of Aransas Pass, according to information found on its website. The district serves a collective population of 24,041 residents.

The district's enrollment of 3,316 students is served by Little Bay Primary School (grades PPCD-K); Live Oak 1-3 Learning Center (grades 1-3); Fulton 4-5 Learning Center(grades 4-5); Rockport-Fulton Middle School (grades 6-8); and Rockport-Fulton High School(grades 9-12), according to its website.

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