The board of trustees at its Oct. 15 meeting approved funds to make additional foundation repairs below the SE Campus pool equipment room after further structural damage was found.
The approval of $308,754.24 follows a May approval of almost $600,000 for repairs, including an unspecified owner-controlled contingency.
Repairs began in June, but the extent of damage was not revealed until September.
“My personal perspective is it doesn’t look like there was anything negligent on TCC’s part on any of this, and this is just part of the construction process and the renovation,” Trustee Laura Forkner Pritchett said.
Paul Mitchell, TCC’s executive director of real estate and facilities, said the extent of damage was not uncovered in a December 2025 inspection due to limited crawlspace access and poor viewing conditions.
“The structural members are encased in concrete, so they showed minor distress in the concrete above,” Mitchell said. “The deterioration appears to be from top-down, so the reinforcement inside that slab is completely deteriorated.”
The pool has been closed for almost seven years after a crack was found on the storage closet floor, the same room where damage was found underneath. Mitchell did not respond to an email asking when the pool might reopen.
Pritchett asked Mitchell if he expected any further repairs or delays.
“That room is really the epicenter,” Mitchell said. “It’s the pool equipment room where all the chemicals are, and that’s where that corrosion started. We feel very confident at least from what we’re hearing from the field report, the engineer and the contractor that this is pretty much contained.”
Mitchell said the new repairs include coating the steel beams with epoxy to protect against corrosion. Pritchett asked why this wasn’t done at the time of construction.
“It’s a cost item,” Mitchell said. “Those structural members were coated with primer. This is an extra level of protection.”
The funds will come from TCC’s capital program, which allocates money for construction and repairs. Mitchell said money has been saved from other projects as well.
In Chief Financial Officer Pamela Anglin’s presentation of the September financial report, TCC reported over $1 million less revenue and almost $10 million in increased spending compared to a year ago. This follows budget cuts caused by less state funding and a tuition freeze.
“The tuition that we collected at the end of September was $903,000 less than one year ago,” she said. “We are getting ready to start our second 8 weeks, so there’s still additional enrollment. We’ll see how much of that we’ve picked up when we see our October statements.”
The board also voted to accept $25,000 from Ambraer Aerospace. The money would go into scholarships for aviation students at NW.
Two NW students attended and said they were grateful for TCC’s aviation programs. Cynthia Kopec moved from Massachusetts to attend TCC and said Ambraer scholarships have given her financial freedom.
“I moved to Texas three years ago all by myself, no job lined up, nothing specifically, just to take the program,” she said.
