Still Vacant

MERCEDES — The John F. Kennedy Elementary School yard is trimmed and the school's brick looks new; few would think by looking at the building that children have not attended class there since September 2007.

"It's beautiful on the outside but the inside is the problem," school board president Benjamin Castillo said.

The school was shut down after water damage, poor air quality, foundation and other construction issues proved to be irreparable, the school district's attorney Michael Salinas said.

The campus was built in 2003 where its predecessor of the same name had been torn down.

Students from first through fifth grade who attended the campus are currently dispersed among the district's other elementary schools while Graham Elementary School, previously used by the district's special education department, has been revamped and converted into a sixth-grade campus, Castillo said.

The district, which is suing the school's general contractor, Scoggins Construction Company Inc. of Harlingen, also filed a separate lawsuit against "at least 10" subcontractors, Salinas said.

He said the lawsuits are still pending.

"We planned on going to court last October or September but we got stalled so we're on a new timeframe," Salinas said. "The best case scenario is that within a year we can resolve the case: settle it or go to trial.

"We're suing to get damages for what it would cost to repair," he said.

School officials did not have a dollar amount for the repair costs, but Salinas said they would be the same or greater than the total construction cost, $6.3 million.

Castillo said school board trustees would begin contemplating solutions within two months even though there is no set timeframe for when litigation will be resolved.

"We want to make a ... five-year plan on what to do with the facilities and at that time the board will talk to the ... superintendent and the attorneys and see what options we have," he said.

He said he has considered the possibility of turning the salvageable part of the 97,592-square-foot campus - a gym, a band hall and a cafeteria - into a community conference center that the school board could also use as a boardroom.

"(It would be) a marble arc where we can have our proms and all that good stuff," he said.