After dispatching work crews to mend burst pipes and broken boilers, North Texas school leaders say they will soon reopen many of the buildings that were badly damaged in last week’s winter storm.
Still, many students won’t be returning to campus until at least Wednesday as their communities continue to recover from the devastation of widespread power outages and water damage.
In Dallas ISD, the state’s second-largest school district, the weather’s impact was substantial.
A third of the district’s buildings — including over 100 campuses — were affected by the freezing temperatures, DISD’s acting chief of school leadership Orlando Riddick said Monday afternoon.
At last count, over 130 pipes had burst across DISD, leaving the district’s maintenance and operations staff scrambling for the past five days.
“They’re doing everything possible at this stage to get things fixed at those locations, and do it right,” Riddick said.
Riddick said that it is too early in the week to know how many — and which — schools won’t be returning when in-person classes resume Wednesday. If repairs can’t be made in time, those campuses will resume all-virtual learning for the short term.
DISD is likely to have “several anomalies,” campuses with more severe damage that will require a much longer window for repairs, Riddick said. In those cases, Dallas is exploring a variety of ideas on how to get back to face-to-face instruction for those students.
“We’ll know more as we drive further,” he said.
The majority of Fort Worth ISD schools will resume in-person and online class on Wednesday. Three campuses, however, will remain closed because of needed repair work.
Students at Bonnie Brae, Westpark and Tanglewood elementary schools will receive virtual-only instruction starting Wednesday. Administrators at those campuses plan to distribute devices to students who need them and arrange for meal pick-ups.
Arlington school officials assessed the district’s 95 campuses and facilities over the last few days and found eight schools may not be ready to welcome students back by Thursday, when the district expects to reopen for in-person instruction.
“We know that uncertainty is hard on families, and they’ve had way too much of that to deal with,” Superintendent Marcelo Cavazos said.
The eight campuses, including three high schools and five elementaries, sustained major flood damage or had boilers break down. The district hopes to have estimated reopening dates by Tuesday, according to district spokeswoman Anita Foster.
Restoration work is still ongoing in Frisco ISD, and officials will evaluate schools on a day-by-day basis to determine the buildings that will be ready to resume in-person instruction starting on Wednesday, district spokesperson Meghan Cone said. Some campuses likely won’t be ready to reopen by then.
The district drained its water systems to prevent pipes from freezing and rupturing. However, Frisco ISD still suffered minor isolated flooding and is discovering leaks as crews refill water systems.
Frisco students are learning virtually until at least Tuesday.
Initially, the district said it may be Wednesday before elementary students will be able to return to on-campus learning and estimated that it could be March 1 for secondary campuses. Cone said the district provided a longer estimate for secondary schools because of prioritization of elementary schools due younger students most in need of one-on-one support.
Most Richardson ISD schools opened Monday, but three buildings saw damage significant enough that officials called off in-person learning. Students at Richardson High School, Hamilton Park Pacesetter Magnet and Math Science Technology Magnet were online only.
The two elementaries, which saw their boilers break down, will reopen Tuesday, spokesman Tim Clark said.
Richardson High School was still without water as of Monday afternoon. That campus had a severe water main break and the fire sprinkler system remains down.
Sandra Hayes, assistant superintendent of operations, said workers were on-call for emergencies throughout the weather crisis.
She monitored security footage from inside RISD campuses to track damage in real time and dispatch crews to make repairs. That worked well, she said, “as long as the power was on.”
Between Thursday and Sunday, workers inspected buildings and made repairs. Of the district’s 55 school buildings, 45 sustained damage.
The average age of RISD campuses is 53 years old. Hayes does not yet know how much the damage will end up costing the district.
Education Commissioner Mike Morath told legislators Monday that the state likely won’t know the full cost of the storm until next month when schools submit survey responses.
When it comes to damages, he said, school districts will turn to insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency first, but the state is “the funder of last resort.”
“The question is whether or not this body wants to set aside some funds,” he told the House appropriations committee.
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