Harlingen CISD reports near-complete intruder-detection upgrades, $2.3M BDA work and several campus facility projects

The Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District’s facilities and safety committee on June 16 received an update on ongoing school-safety and facility projects, including the district’s bidirectional amplifier (BDA) installation — a Texas Education Agency-funded emergency-responders communications enhancement project — that officials said is effectively complete in the field.

The update matters because the BDA work and related radio-infrastructure projects are intended to eliminate radio dead spots inside campuses and improve first-responder communications during emergencies. Facilities staff also briefed trustees on multiple TRE and maintenance-tax projects, contingency balances and an upcoming move of double-wide portable classrooms to Travis STEM Academy.

Danny Castillo, who delivered the school-safety overview to the committee, said the district is engaged in “our ongoing TEA intruder detection audit process” and that specific audit findings will be discussed in closed session at the board’s next regular meeting. Castillo also described the radio-infrastructure work and the district’s “BDA project,” which he said is near completion.

Mister Tapia, who presented grant-funded project details, told the committee the TEA-funded Emergency Responders Communication Enhancement Project (the BDA installations) was awarded to Safeguard as a $2,300,000 project. “We're about 73% as per the invoices submitted but we're really more, like, 90% complete actually on the field,” Tapia said, adding that 13–14 schools have been completed and are in testing for coverage and three schools have passed inspection.

Tapia reviewed several other facility projects in progress under different funding sources: TRE playground and striping work at Bonham Elementary (reported 99% complete), chiller-line replacement at the administration annex, HVAC upgrades and locker-room work at the south gym, marquees and flashing repairs at several campuses, and the “brand new gym” project at the South campus with rooftop units expected by mid-summer.

The presentation also covered portable-classroom logistics. When asked, Tapia said the two double-wide portables coming from STEM Academy “are classrooms; each one has two classrooms in it.” He added that at the Travis site “one of the rooms is gonna be split in half to have dressing rooms for the boys and girls for the middle-school-aged children for their PE class.” Tapia said the district budgeted moving and site-improvement costs under maintenance-tax note funding.

On contingency and closeout items Tapia said an ESSER-funded rooftop unit change order left $11,008.08 in contingency for that project, and a small amphitheater change order left roughly $5,000 in that account; he said unused contingency funds will be credited back to the district when final payments are processed.

Committee members asked about timelines and remaining items; staff reported some installations will be completed once deliveries arrive and weather permits, and that remaining commissioning and inspection work would follow. Castillo noted the district will present specific intruder-detection audit findings in closed session at the next regular board meeting.

No formal board action on project awards or contracts was recorded in the committee portion of the meeting; the session was an informational update to trustees and staff. The facilities committee adjourned after questions and a photo opportunity for staff and trustees.

The district identified funding sources for the projects as TEA grants for the BDA work, TRE funds, maintenance-tax note funds, ESSER allocations for selected capital projects, and an Elon Musk Foundation gift for select projects noted elsewhere in committee materials.