NEEDVILLE — State education officials have approved a plan to let high school students whose TAKS tests burned up in a deliberately set fire to retake the exams, possibly as early as next week, officials said.
The test results were destroyed when the fire heavily damaged Needville High School early Monday in rural Fort Bend County. The tests were administered last week.
"Once we determine a date when they are actually going to conduct the testing, then we will ship those materials out to them," Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said Tuesday.
Marchman said the tests could be sent to Needville at the end of this week so that ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-grade students could take the state-mandated exams sometime next week.
The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is an annual statewide standardized test used to measure student and school performance.
Classes for high schoolers will resume Monday with students going to school on a staggered schedule, said Needville Independent School District Superintendent Curtis Rhodes.
"With the classroom space that is available, we will just kind of double up and share the classrooms," Rhodes said.
Only 19 instructional days remain in the school year.
Rhodes said a dollar estimate on the damage has not been determined because insurance adjusters have not been able to go onto the property to examine the building.
He said investigators still have the smoky ruins cordoned off searching for evidence.
While school officials worked to find classroom space and get ready to restart instruction, fire investigators were following leads and clues in the case.
The blaze was first reported about 4:30 a.m. at the high school building just south of Needville along Texas 36. No one was injured, but a portion of the building was destroyed and other parts were damaged.
Fort Bend County Fire Marshal Vance Cooper said the fire was intentionally set and that it was ignited at two different locations.
Fire departments from 21 cities battled the flames. Firefighters quickly exhausted campus water tanks and had to shuttle tanker trucks about two miles to Needville to bring water to the site. The school buildings are located in the unincorporated part of the county where there is no regular water system and people usually get water from wells.
Rhodes said neighboring school districts have agreed to loan Needville ISD any needed materials or books lost in the fire.
Next year's school term starts Aug. 27, which gives officials almost three months to get ready.
"If there is anything good about a late school start, it's that it gives us another couple of weeks to bring in portable buildings," Rhodes said.
Anyone with information about the fire is asked to call Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at 281-342-TIPS.
Source : http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4745943.html
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