Even though nearly $2.1 billion in federal recovery funds have been obligated for permanent works in the Department of Education (DE in Spanish) since 2020, and the agency’s Infrastructure Master Plan initially identified 85 schools for reconstruction after Hurricane María, students still lack new facilities. The Education Department is the most delayed agency in Puerto Rico’s government in using hurricane recovery funds from Irma and María, both in 2017, with barely 4% disbursed.

Last school year, students from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School in Toa Baja attended classes from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Adolfina Irizarry School. Some took a bus contracted by the department from their old school, about a 15-minute drive away. In August 2025, they moved again: this time to Luis M. Santiago School, where they now follow a regular schedule just a few minutes from Adolfina Irizarry.

Meanwhile, the 167 students of the Luis M. Santiago school were relocated next door to the José Nevárez Landrón School, an elementary campus in Toa Baja’s urban center that had been closed in 2016 but reopened this year. Since last year, their original school building in Levittown, which has been awaiting demolition and reconstruction under the Innova Program, has experienced a 57% decline in enrollment. From 651 students in 2024, only 283 remain, now squeezed into 38 classrooms divided by gypsum board. Even so, space is short, forcing the use of five classrooms in a neighboring school.

“We got used to that schedule. However, in this new location, there are electrical problems, and some of the water fountains are not functioning. In some classrooms, the lights go off and come back on. The power isn’t stable. It’s a problem of the school, which is pretty old,” said senior student Rafael Abrahams. According to the Education Department’s infrastructure plan, Luis M. Santiago was built in 1923.

“But it’s all good, as they say, we’ll just keep moving forward, because this is our last year,” he added. 

The Luis M. Santiago School was constructed in 1923. Photo by Brandon Cruz González | Centro de Periodismo Investigativo

Pedro Albizu Campos High School principal Maribelisse Alvarado Ramos believes the enrollment loss may be tied to parents’ dissatisfaction with last year’s alternating schedule. The move to Luis M. Santiago was supposed to restore regular class hours. However, of the four vocational tracks offered at the high school, accounting and medical billing ultimately had no students.

A teacher at the school, who asked not to be identified, said that some families chose to enroll their children in the Basilio Milán Hernández Specialized Sports School or the Caribbean Global School charter school, both of which are located closer to the original campus.

Rafael’s father, Arnaldo Abrahams, said mornings are more difficult now since all three of his children attend different schools. “It gets a little tough, but with my wife’s help, we manage everything we need to and split the responsibilities,” he said. 

Rafael noted that some classmates stayed at Adolfina Irizarry, while others transferred to María Teresa Piñeiro in Sabana Seca and to Cacique Agüeybaná in Bayamón. “Some teachers also left the school,” he added.

As students scatter and enrollment dwindles, no action has been taken on the reconstruction of Albizu Campos High School. Principal Alvarado Ramos does not even have an office at Luis M. Santiago; she was placed in a storage room with no windows.

Enrollment is not the only loss the faculty has faced. “We lost many things when we moved to Adolfina Irizarry,” recalled science teacher Egraín Medina Ramírez. “I had two air conditioners, not provided by the department but donated by a nonprofit, and when I got to my classroom, they were gone. A projector of mine was also missing,” he said.

The relocation of students in Toa Baja is just one example of the disruption affecting more than 34,000 children whose schools were damaged by Hurricane María and have still not been rebuilt as planned.

According to the Education Department’s Infrastructure Master Plan, in 2023, officials identified 85 schools under the Innova program. By 2024, that number had been reduced to 45, and now only 38 schools will be rebuilt or replaced. Of those, 12 campuses will be repaired and restored to their pre-disaster condition with updates to meet current building codes, and only six will be entirely new. In the meantime, students and teachers shuffle between temporary arrangements and alternating schedules, affecting education, enrollment, and the social fabric of their communities.

The Only Project Under Construction

Innova is the “comprehensive program for modernizing and building new schools” after hurricanes Irma and María in 2017, according to the Education Department. These schools were initially referred to as “alpha schools,” explained José Basora Fagundo, former director of the DE Infrastructure Office. Under this program, Francisco Morales High School in Naranjito is being remodeled, the only permanent recovery project the agency has managed to start in eight years.

Construction began in April 2024, and the new campus is scheduled to open in November 2026.

L&R Engineering Group and Entech are leading the redesign and reconstruction under a $22.8 million contract. The agreement has been amended twice: once to extend its duration and a second time to add $2.4 million. As of August, FEMA had disbursed just $5.5 million of the total cost, while the Education Department had contributed $2.4 million. Entech President Roberto López Esquerra has donated nearly $8,000 to politicians from both the New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish) and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD, in Spanish).

The CPI confirmed that students at the high school under reconstruction began their second year of alternating shifts at Mercedes Rosado School. That high school also saw a decline in enrollment: from 393 students in 2024 to 375 this school year.

Discrepancies also exist between the schools the Education Department lists for improvements under the Innova program and the data reported by COR3. For example, the department says there are 38 Innova projects. COR3, however, lists 11 projects with obligated funds and 31 under FEMA evaluation. In total, COR3’s portal identifies 42 Innova projects.

Even updates on recovery projects vary between PNP administrations.

In summer 2024, the DE Infrastructure Office reported that of 45 Innova projects, 34 were in the design phase. At the time, Basora Fagundo, a civil engineer and then-director of the office, estimated school reconstruction would extend until 2027. But interim director Christian Betancourt later pushed that timeline to 2032, according to remarks at a July 2025 press conference. Betancourt said 26 Innova projects were in design and later told the CPI that two schools would be demolished. No bids, however, have yet been awarded.

Betancourt explained in a written statement that discrepancies among DE, COR3, and FEMA reports stem from the fact that Innova “underwent changes that are not necessarily reflected yet in FEMA and COR3’s platforms. Some projects have to be phased out, which causes federal numbers not to match immediately.”

The three firms that have secured the most significant number of design contracts so far under Innova are E Co and Integra Design Group, Fiedler & Frías Architects, and CSA Architects & Engineers. Executives from Integra are listed as political donors, including to the PNP.

What the Master Plan Says About Toa Baja and Naranjito Schools

Turner, Townsend & Heery, a firm hired in October 2021 under a $11.1 million contract, headed the development of the DE’s Infrastructure Master Plan. The plan was delivered in April 2023. That same month, the contract was amended to include an additional $64.5 million.

The Master Plan focused on “how to invest FEMA funds to maximize opportunities for transforming teaching and learning for all Education Department students” and outlined funding levels for repairs, interventions, modernization, transformation, and school replacement.

For example, the plan identified 15 schools in the municipality of Toa Baja, of which five are in flood zones: José Nevárez López, Adolfina Irizarry De Puig, José Robles Otero, Luis M. Santiago, and Altinencia Valle. The plan also recommended transferring students to Francisca Dávila Semprit School in the same town, as it has a greater capacity.

Regarding the Francisco Morales High School in Naranjito, the plan noted that it is “one mile from another high school, Rubén Rodríguez Figueroa,” and that “consolidating resources between these two schools should be considered.” It also identified the Mercedes Rosado School in Naranjito as being in a flood-prone area. According to the Education Department, the Master Plan’s recommendations were informed through workshops with school communities in which “the plan’s initial efforts were aligned with the interests, beliefs, and passions of the community.” 

More Than a Year Waiting for Demolition in Levittown

At a public hearing on Aug. 12, just two days before the start of the school year, the Education Department revealed that an analysis conducted a year earlier had found uneven terrain at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School, creating a significant structural risk in the event of an earthquake. In September 2024, the department decided to demolish the entire campus, rather than just some buildings, as initially planned. Ten months passed before a demolition contract was signed, requiring a new design submission to FEMA and the publication of a new bid. 

Sunset Contractors & Recycling Inc. signed a $680,000 contract with the Education Department on July 22 to demolish the school and was authorized to begin work on Aug. 11. The CPI found that work started in mid-September, with fences around the campus covered and warning signs posted. Cafeteria and restroom equipment has already been dismantled, and crews are now removing windows and doors.

“It’s going to be done with excavators, no explosives or anything like that. We expect it won’t take longer than seven months,” said site inspector Egon González in an interview with the CPI. The contract is in effect until May 18, 2026.

Each morning, Albizu Campos students gather at the Levittown Sports Complex to catch the bus to the Luis M. Santiago School. Previously, they waited in front of their original campus. According to science teacher Egraín Medina, the change “caused a bit of discontent among parents and students.” Although he proposed adding a stop to the bus route, the idea was not accepted by the Bayamón education region.

At Áurea Quiles Claudio School in Guánica, the change was immediately noticeable when students returned to a regular schedule this year after five years of alternating shifts, said science teacher Karla Echevarría Sepúlveda. The high school had operated from 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. since 2019. In August, it returned to a typical day from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

“Students have improved in every way,” said Echevarría, who began teaching there remotely in 2020 when the pandemic forced virtual learning. She said the benefits were evident “in their sleep, their nutrition, their overall routine.” 

Although she did not identify academic setbacks, Echevarría highlighted a drop in enrollment over the past five years. Between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years, Áurea Quiles Claudio, a school slated for replacement under Innova, lost 12% of its student body. Enrollment dropped from 334 students in 2020 to 295 last year.

“After the pandemic and the earthquakes, parents sought safety for their children, schools where they would have a full schedule. That had a significant impact on it. Many families left Guánica,” she said.

The Education Department estimated that bidding for the construction of the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School in Levittown will open in January 2027, with the new school set to open in 2029. The department also told the House Education Committee that the redesign “reduced the projected enrollment from 650 to 500 students.” However, there is no certainty that the school will be rebuilt, as only demolition funds, not construction funds, have been secured, the department stated.

Adding to the federal bureaucracy, a directive issued under President Donald Trump’s administration now requires that “federal projects over $100,000 must be approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security,” Innova project manager Tamara Orozco Rebozo noted during the hearing.

Student Rafael Abrahams of Toa Baja and his father, Arnaldo, said they worry that federal recovery funds could be cut. Still, Rafael, a senior, expressed optimism about the future of schools that “are slowly being rebuilt.”

The first schools to receive funding for permanent work, in November and December 2021, were Dr. José N. Gándara in Aibonito, the Residential Center for Educational Opportunities of Ceiba (CROEC, in Spanish), María M. Simmons de Rivera in Vieques, and Luis Felipe Rodríguez García in Camuy.

According to the recovery status report submitted to Congress by the Puerto Rican government in July 2025, $4.2 million was obligated for painting, roof sealing, lighting repairs, and equipment at CROEC, with 95% of the work completed. In Aibonito, just over $2 million was obligated for repairs to the basketball court, cafeteria, classrooms, fences, doors, disability access ramps, library, and electrical systems in the hallways. The other two campuses were not mentioned and remain without disbursements on COR3’s website.

This translation was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and clarity.