Homecoming for safety

Craigan Colunga was born and raised in Fort Bend County, graduated from Needville High School in 2011, and came back in 2021 as Chief of Police for the ISD. The department he leads is fully integrated within the school district, responsible for the safety of more than 3,800 students and 580 staff across a community growing faster than anyone anticipated. He spoke about what that responsibility means, and what a partnership with Ørsted has made possible.

“
I moved to Needville in seventh grade and graduated from this high school. When the opportunity came to come back and serve as Chief, I took it without hesitation. This is home.

I became a police officer because I wanted to serve, protect, and make a positive difference in my community. When the opportunity came to come back to Needville and lead this department, I took it without hesitation. This is home. These are not just numbers on a roster. They are our kids, families, teachers, and neighbors. I feel that every single day.

The Needville ISD Police Department is not a city department. We are fully funded by and operate within the school district. Our responsibility starts and ends with these students and the people who work with them. My job is to make sure everyone shows up safe, and everyone goes home safe. I do not take that lightly.

What makes it more demanding is the growth. New neighborhoods are going up in every direction. The district is opening a new junior high and two new elementary schools over the next few years, taking us from one elementary to three. More students, more campuses, more events, more ground to cover. Football games, graduation, the Youth Fair. These are not small gatherings. They bring the whole community together, and keeping them safe requires the right people and the right equipment.

The conversation about what our department needed started with our retired Superintendent Curtis Rhodes, Jamie Perry from P&F Services, and myself sitting down and talking through the gaps. Out of that came the donation of a Polaris Ranger side-by-side, made together by Ørsted and P&F Services.

At a packed Friday night football game, at graduation, at the Youth Fair, that vehicle means our officers can move quickly across large areas and respond where standard patrol vehicles cannot reach.

Needville is a rural community, and terrain is a real challenge. In the past, when we had a missing or runaway juvenile, we had to call in outside agencies and wait for specialized resources to arrive. With the Polaris Ranger, we can respond immediately and independently. In situations involving children, that time is everything.

Beyond the donation, the tax revenue the solar facility generates flows to emergency services across the district. A community adding a hundred students a year cannot run on the same resources it had a decade ago. Those funds help us keep pace with what this community is becoming.

What Ørsted has shown is that safe schools are the foundation of a strong community, and that protecting students and staff is something worth investing in. For our students and staff, it means knowing they are valued not just by the district but by the neighbors around them. School safety is a shared responsibility, and it means everything to have a partner who understands that.