At 7 p.m. Sunday night, Whitesboro ISD planned to hold classes as usual on Monday. However, just a couple of hours later, as light sleet began to fall and ice began to appear on the streets, the district changed its tune.
Families began receiving an automated phone call from the district alerting them that, out of “an abundance of caution,” schools would be closed on Monday.
The same message was shared via social media and Class Dojo, an app used by the schools to keep in contact with families.
Unlike S&S CISD, who was already closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Tioga ISD, who only holds classes Tuesday through Friday, Whitesboro and Collinsville both had scheduled classes that day.
The threat of impending weather caused Collinsville ISD to cancel their classes as well.
Luckily for both districts, the day of school will not have to be made up at a later time as both districts have enough minutes banked to not impact attendance requirements.
According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA), state law requires public schools to adopt an attendance accounting system for their students. Part of these requirements is meeting a specific number of instructional minutes per year.
Districts are encouraged to ensure their adopted calendar includes additional minutes to account for at least two bad weather or other missed school days related to health and safety concerns.
By creating this buffer, districts have some flexibility in how many school days they can miss each year.
“With school calendars based off of minutes, it becomes easier to make the call [to close school] without having to worry about making up days,” WISD Superintendent Ryan Harper said.
Despite how things were looking late Sunday night, Monday’s weather didn’t bring the snow and ice that other areas of Texas received, and roads appeared to be clear. This left some questioning why schools were closed in the first place.
“Many factors play into deciding to call off a day of school,” Harper said. “Usually, it’s an obvious reason with ice and snow accumulation.
“However, buses starting, morning temperatures at bus stops, building heaters and water availability are all determining factors as well.
“Student and staff safety is always our number one concern.”
Temperatures are expected to rise next week and stay above freezing with high probability of rain.
