Some of North Texas’ largest school districts won’t bring students back for class early next week because of weather-related damage.
Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth school officials canceled both in-person and virtual classes next Monday and Tuesday. Given its challenges to get its schools reopened, Frisco ISD also announced that in-person instruction would not happen on Monday. Frisco’s tentative plan is for students to participate in virtual learning on Monday and Tuesday.
The winter storm brought power outages and property damage to campuses across Texas. Arlington ISD officials identified 26 school facilities with damage as of Friday afternoon.
“We want everyone to take Monday and Tuesday of next week to focus on their needs, but be ready to resume school remotely on Wednesday,” Arlington Superintendent Marcelo Cavazos said.
Arlington plans to resume remote instruction on Wednesday and open up as many schools as possible for on-campus instruction on Thursday. Fort Worth officials have not announced plans beyond Tuesday.
The area’s largest district, Dallas ISD, canceled classes for Monday and Tuesday. Risk assessors and facilities crews were walking through campuses Friday afternoon, trying to understand the scope of any damage.
Early indications suggest possible widespread water damage at approximately a third of the district’s 225 campuses, but no final number could be confirmed as of Friday afternoon, district spokesperson Robyn Harris said.
The Frisco school district took its 80 buildings off the power grid during the storm to conserve energy for nearby homeowners who were experiencing rolling blackouts, officials said in a letter to parents.
While Frisco ISD’s maintenance department “worked tirelessly” to ensure that its schools didn’t receive significant damage, the process of bringing campuses “back online” would take longer than a few days.
“Our hope is to resume on-campus instruction as soon as possible for face-to-face learners, but the District must restore power and water and resupply food to our schools before students and staff can be back on campuses,” the letter read.
Meghan Cone, spokesperson for the district, said schools were taken offline for a combination of reasons, including “to support the welfare and safety of the community” and to protect Frisco ISD’s infrastructure.
At least eight Denton campuses won’t welcome students back to school next Monday. Harpool Middle School might not be able to do so until after spring break because of significant damages.
The district plans to bring some students back for in-person instruction later in the week, but Harpool’s campus sustained substantial property damage after a fire-suppression system flooded the first floor. The school will be closed for both in-person and online instruction Monday and Tuesday, and then students will resume remote learning on Wednesday through at least March 5.
The Texas Education Agency notified districts Thursday that they could apply for additional waivers for missed school days next week if in-person instruction is not possible because of property damage and remote learning is not an option because of continued power outages. The agency encouraged districts that can’t open campuses to offer 100% remote instruction.
State officials noted that some districts may need additional waivers beyond next week because of significant storm damage.
The TEA also offered guidance on possible financial aid for districts. Gov. Greg Abbott asked President Joe Biden on Thursday to grant a major disaster declaration that would provide federal funds to assist in recovery efforts.
The agency directed districts to track expenses in case of possible reimbursement from these funds. TEA also suggested districts that lost food in the storm work with insurance providers to address potential claims.
On Friday, several school systems — most notably Mesquite ISD and Tarrant County districts of Arlington, Birdville and Keller — had facilities falling under the various boil water notices scattered throughout North Texas.
Those are expected to be rescinded within the coming days, however, as stable power allows public utilities to restore adequate pressure throughout their water systems.
The water-boil order affecting the area will have a big impact on the start of instruction, Arlington’s Cavazos said. Part of his district’s post-storm campus assessment is how quickly schools can resume feeding students.
“Those are major challenges on top of the storm that we’re facing,” he said.
In Irving and Dallas, their food services departments spent the better part of the week trying to line up deliveries from their vendors to ensure hot meals for students if campuses were to open Monday.
With all but a few exceptions, each Dallas campus held three to five days worth of food in their full-service kitchens or food distribution stations, said Michael Rosenberger, the district’s executive director of food and child nutrition services.
The most vulnerable aspect of those inventories, he said, were perishable items, such as dairy and fresh fruits and vegetables — items kept in refrigerated units that possibly lost power.
Cafeteria staffers were going through their kitchens on Thursday and Friday to assess their needs, said Dallas ISD’s Rosenberger. The district already lined up early Monday morning deliveries from its dairy vendor, Oak Farms, to each campus. With nearly half of its students participating in face-to-face instruction, the district goes through about 14,000 gallons of milk — or 225,000 half-pints — per day.
Dallas ISD will resume its grab-and-go meal program in an abbreviated fashion on Monday, providing families and children two days of meals in order to get back to regular Wednesday service.
“We want the community to come out and stock up on food for your kids,” he said. “We know grocery store shelves are pretty bare.”
Irving’s nutritional services department was going through its inventories on Friday afternoon as well, getting ready for Saturday deliveries of milk, produce and other items from three different vendors, said Olga Rosenberger, director of food and nutrition services.
The district appeared to be spared widespread damage that plagued the region, said Nicole Mansell, executive director of communications. As of Friday morning, only one of Irving’s 36 campuses was still without power.
“When our students come back on Monday, it will just be a seamless transition for them,” said Irving’s Rosenberger. “Our job is to make sure it happens as seamless as possible, so that they can count on a warm meal on Monday … and they won’t even know the work that went behind it.”
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