Property insurance premiums to rise for schools

July 16--Property insurance rates are going up for Ector County Independent School District and Odessa College, but not necessarily as a result of the June hail storm that hit Odessa.

The University of Texas of the Permian Basin is self-insured meaning the all the UT components contribute to a fund that is drawn on when an institution has an incident like this, said Travis Woodward, director of communications and special projects.

If the damage is $5 million or under, it's a $250,000 deductible, but if it's over $5 million a new set of criteria kicks in, Woodward said. She noted that damage is still being assessed on campus, but so far they've had 486 windows broken or damaged, 34 skylights broken and 18 university vehicles damaged, not counting student vehicles.

Woodward said buildings with shingles, such as student housing and the new residence dining hall, will likely have to have the shingles replaced.

All other roofs, such as metal and composition roofs, are very likely going to be repaired, Woodward said.

ECISD Chief Operations Officer David Morris said a team of adjustors assessed the damage to the district's roofs and the initial estimate was $35 million to $40 million.

"Our insurance renewal was July 1 and we've been told that our premium is going to go up from this past year," Morris said.

This past year, it was $411,000 through AIG insurance. Morris said the district was quoted $1.3 million for next year.

"We're going to go out for an RFP (request for proposals) on our property insurance (to) see if we can find a better deal than that," Morris said. "We had a hail storm in September of 2016 that we're still working on replacing our roofs (from) and this other one came along, so this is two whammies pretty close together."

Morris said an RFP on the property insurance is going to be issued as soon as possible.

Roger Cleere, ECISD director of transportation, said just short of 30 vehicles were damaged in the hail storm, most of which were police cars and white fleet vehicles. The school buses fared well as most of them were protected by covered parking with their ends sticking out. He said one bus window was cracked, but they can't be 100 percent sure it was from the hail storm. Cleere said the district has not yet settled with the insurance company on the dollar damage to the vehicles and he didn't know if the rates would go up. Ken Zartner, executive director of administration and human resources at Odessa College, said an appraisal has been received on damage to vehicles at the college and that comes to $34,862. "We will be getting reimbursed $17,862 from that," Zartner said. "We had a couple of vehicles that were under the deductible for damage. Our deductible for vehicles is $1,000." Property damage is still undergoing a damage assessment. Their insurance comes through the Texas Association of School Boards.

Zartner said he thinks the hold-up on the property assessment is the roofs because of the different materials used whether or how they can be repaired or replaced.

"Our insurance is renewed every Sept. 1. I pressured TASB to give us a renewal ... in late May/ early June. We got a renewal price quote from TASB two weeks before the storm hit, but it did go up. We started talking to TASB in early March. Up until that hail storm, we were pretty much in the clear but it went up 10 percent. The deductibles increased significantly," Zartner said.

He added that this was because other properties insured by TASB in other parts of the state had been hard hit by storms, as well.

Normally, $50,000 covers the deductible for severe weather. If a building catches fire and burns, the deductible is $25,000. "If four buildings were damaged, it's one deductible for all four," Zartner said. Now it's a $100,000 deductible.

There was damage to student housing, skylights and roofs. Zartner said the roofs on the new construction at the college are OK.

"We've done some temporary repairs throughout the campus, but the good side for us is that for summer the student housing is not being used at this point" and any repairs will be made prior to the arrival of students, Zartner said.

Ruth Campbell covers education for the Odessa American. Reach her at 432-333-7765 or 432-333-7765 or [email protected]

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