Commissioner John Sharp of the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath sent the following letter to school district leaders on Tuesday, October 3, 2017:
Rebuild Texas and the TEA are here to help you
On Sept. 7, Governor Greg Abbott created the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas, appointed Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp as the Commissioner and authorized the Texas A&M System to provide staff support.
The primary focus of the Commission is to rebuild or repair public infrastructure, including roads, government buildings and, of course, our public schools.
Commissioner Mike Morath and the Texas Education Agency are working with Rebuild Texas and will serve as your primary liaison with the Commission. As a part of Rebuild Texas, the TEA will be providing you important updates, answering your questions and getting you answers to your pressing issues – whether those issues are related to TEA directly or not. Please continue contacting TEA as you normally would on issues that impact your school district. Additionally, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension agents have been drafted to offer support to TEA and to school systems as necessary on any issues that arise during our rebuilding efforts.
Rebuild Texas and the TEA are here to help you.
As we recover from Hurricane Harvey, it is important that you accurately assess your damages, document them and comply with federal requirements for aid. Gov. Abbott also has asked that we “future-proof” our facilities, if possible, to mitigate damages from future storms.
It is also important in the near term that we collect information on the scope of this damage to properly inform federal and state policymakers, to ensure we can deliver adequate resources to support your recovery. To that end, we have provided you with a Rebuild Texas Worksheet intended to capture this information for your school system. It is likely that you already received this Worksheet and responded to Rebuild Texas with your needs. As a follow up, TEA representatives of Rebuild Texas will reach out to you starting this week to help you supply initial damage assessments using the Worksheet if you have not already done so. We know that you have many pressing matters as you operate your school systems and rebuild from Harvey, but this data collection will be critical to our efforts to provide you with additional financial and operational assistance throughout the rebuilding process.
Should you have questions or a need for assistance and are unable to reach your AgriLife Extension agent or TEA, you may contact us at rebuildtexas@tamus.edu.
Together, we can Rebuild Texas better and stronger.
John Sharp, Commissioner, Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas
Mike Morath, Commissioner, Texas Education Agency