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Conroe ISD and Montgomery County outline hurricane readiness: shelters, buses and warehouse support
Summary
District maintenance and Montgomery County OEM described hurricane-season preparations: generator testing, EOC power backup, stocked warehouse supplies and mutual aid plans that rely on school buses, vehicle staging and pod distribution at school parking lots; shelter openings occur at county request per HB 1471 and a 2018 board resolution.
District staff and Montgomery County emergency managers briefed the School Safety & Security Committee on hurricane‑season preparations, stressing partnerships and logistics for sheltering, evacuations and recovery.
Marshall Schroeder (district maintenance/operations presenter) summarized weather outlook and preparedness measures, citing a Colorado State University forecast of about 13 named storms with six hurricanes and two majors and noting an El Niño pattern tends to increase wind shear (which can reduce hurricane formation) while increasing local rainfall and flood risk. Schroeder and others emphasized that flooding remains a primary local concern.
Schroeder said the district follows legal and operational obligations: House Bill 1471 (2007) requires districts to assist as needed during disasters and a 2018 board resolution formalizes the district’s role in county sheltering. The district will open shelters only when requested by the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and will use an exit strategy so campuses can resume classes as soon as possible after a storm.
On operations, maintenance staff said generators across the district have been serviced and tested, the district’s emergency warehouse is stocked with plywood and "quick dams," the emergency operations center has 100% power backup, and communications backups (radios and battery systems) are in place. Staff described tiered leadership responses to return campuses to safe operation and stressed documentation for insurance or FEMA claims after damage.
Trey Baxter, Montgomery County OEM section chief for preparedness, described a nearly 70,000‑square‑foot county warehouse of prepositioned supplies available to partners, routine briefings with weather services and the county’s practice of using school buses for evacuations and school parking lots as pod (point‑of‑distribution) sites for water, ice and food supplies.
Baxter invited district officials to tour the county EOC and warehouse; staff and trustees also discussed short‑term textbook storage and logistics. No new policy decisions were recorded; committee members received the briefing and had an opportunity to ask questions.
