F
ranklin Regional School District offered assistance to three Texas
school districts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s devastation.
These districts are in Refugio County, an area near the gulf coast
between Corpus Christi and Houston, Texas.
Franklin Regional Senior High School (FRSH) formed a committee
in late September consisting of student club representatives, faculty,
and administration. Assistant Principal Joan Mellon researched the
Texas area looking for a small community in need. She found three
districts that were in the direct path of Harvey when it made landfall
in late August.
“The FR Texas Relief Committee focused on the students in three
less populated school systems far from the Houston area who have
had their lives turned upside down by the damage that Hurricane
Harvey produced,” said Ms. Mellon. “Administrators from the districts
said that the communities have received local offers of help with the
rebuilding effort; however, the help offered from our students was
different because it focused on helping individual students heal from
their recent losses.”
FR is partnering with Austwell-
Tivoli Independent School District,
which enrolls 150 students
in grades Pre-K-12, Refugio
Independent School District,
which serves 752 students in
grades Pre-K-12, and Woodsboro
Independent School District,
educating 528 students in grades
Pre-K-12. The districts serve the
Texas towns of Bayside, Refugio,
Woodsboro, Austwell, and Tivoli.
Refugio County, which is 172
miles outside of Houston, took a
direct hit from Harvey. The county
is home to a population of 7,383
people, of which 50 percent are
Hispanic, 42 percent are White, and 7 percent are African American.
In a county where half of the school districts’ student population
qualifies for free lunches, 17.8 % of families were living below the
poverty line prior to Harvey’s landfall.
“At first, there was a bustle of help in the County, but then the
storm went and drowned Houston, and the people of this county
were left to help themselves,” said one local resident who did not wish
to be identified. “The roof just blew off Austwell-Tivoli High School.”
The weight room at Refugio High School is crowded with American
Red Cross cots for football players who lost their homes to Hurricane
Harvey. Most residents did not have the resources available to evacuate
when the warnings came about Harvey’s inevitable hit on the area.
“There are so many stories like this from Refugio County,” said Mrs.
Becky Magness, media teacher at FRSH. “Because this is an area that
has been forgotten in the relief efforts, the entire Franklin Regional
FR Rallies Behind Three Texas Schools
FOR HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS