The fire that destroyed two buildings Monday at Needville High School – and students’ TAKS tests – was intentionally set, officials with Needville Independent School District said Tuesday.
“It’s definitely arson,” said Assistant Superintendent Beth Briscoe.
Meanwhile, classes for pre-kindergarten through 8th-grade students, which had been canceled Monday due to the fire, resumed as usual on Tuesday.
Classes won’t resume until later for high school students, who are scheduled to meet with district officials on Thursday to hear details of a scheduling plan that will allow all students to attend college-style classes at undamaged buildings on the high school campus.
As for the arsonists, Briscoe said school officials were told they first tried to start a fire in the science building, “but it didn’t start well, so they advanced to the old main building” near administrative offices.
“It was just a beautiful building,” she said of the old main building, which contained 60-year-old wood floors, and sat on a pier-and-beam foundation. “But unfortunately, it was also kindling.”
Both the science building and the old main building were destroyed, and portions of the cafeteria and library were damaged. Also destroyed were ungraded Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests that had been taken just last week by freshmen, sophomores and juniors, and were to have been shipped off to the Texas Education Agency on Monday.
Despite the fact the tests were stored in offices in the old main building, Briscoe said officials don’t believe the TAKS tests played a role in the arson. “right now the principals don’t feel that was part of the deal,” she added. Principals also said they couldn’t think of any disgruntled student, or anyone else with a motive that might have led to starting the fire.
An investigation into the blaze – which erupted at about 3:15 a.m. Monday and was battled by 12 to 15 fire departments – is continuing, with participation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Texas Rangers and the Fort Bend County Fire Marshal’s Office.
Briscoe said investigators “have leads” but can’t disclose details.
Neighboring Lamar Consolidated ISD offered temporary buildings for Needville to use the remainder of the year, and Needville churches offered classroom space, which Briscoe called “a very nice gesture.”
But to resolve transportation issues, administrators settled on a plan to hold high school classes in two buildings on the campus – two miles south of Needville on State Highway 36 – that were undamaged by the fire.
In order to accommodate all students, the plan is to have 9th and 10th graders attend school from 8 to 11:55 a.m., while juniors and seniors attend from 1 to 4:55 p.m.
Briscoe said classes will be structured similarly to university classes, with third, fourth, sixth and seventh-period classes being taught on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and second, fifth and eighth-period classes being held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The district still is unsure what to do about the TAKS tests that burned up in the fire. It is a state requirement that juniors must pass the tests in order to graduate.
Briscoe said Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley called the district from somewhere outside of Austin, to tell officials she’d informed staffers at the TEA “to hold up, and she would make the decision for Needville” regarding how or whether to make up the TAKS tests.
But that decision has yet to be made.
Amid the flurry of action and decision-making that followed the fire, Briscoe, herself a Needville High School graduate, said the impact of what happened didn’t immediately hit her.
“It has sunken in deeper to me today than it did yesterday,” she said. “To be honest, I’m kind of bitter today after finding out it was arson.”
