by Chloe Jordan | Editor-In-Chief
The district will be returning for a makeup day on May 30.
The reason the district canceled school on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 was because of dangerous conditions on the road and power outages at some schools.
“It’s the safety of everyone here in North East and our employees that are having to travel or possibly travel in areas that were in even worse shape with ice than we were,” Principal Gary Comalander said.
Feb. 20, President’s day, has historically been a bad weather makeup day.
“The holidays that are available are the one in February, Battle of the Flowers, and then after that, it’s adding days on at the end of the year, once school ends,” Comalander said. “We always apply for a waiver from TEA, Texas Education Agency, and if they approve it, then we don’t have to make the days up, but if they don’t, then we have to make the days up.”
Originally, Feb. 20 was going to be a makeup day as well. But, TEA approved the waiver, and the district reversed that decision with an announcement on NEISD’s Instagram.
“It just went through Friday. That’s kind of pretty much every school district in the entire state that’s doing things like that now,” Comalander said. “South of here, it wasn’t as big of an issue, but north of here, it was. There was lots of ice in different areas.”
By law, Texas schools are required to run 180 days a year.
“And if you, as a district, cancel one for any reason, in this case weather, then you either have to make it up,” Comalander said. “Or you have to get permission from the agency to have it canceled.”
Additionally, schools have to meet almost 78,000 minutes a year.
“We don’t have to add extra minutes because we’re okay there, but we still have to have 180 days,” Comalander said. “Some people have more than 180 days, you know? And that way, if they miss a day, they still are fine.”
Seniors will not be affected by the makeup day on May 30, as they will not have to attend school.
“They typically miss a couple of days there at the end that are always approved by TEA,” Comalander said. “So, all graduations will still take place in the district that weekend – the 27, 28, and 29.”
Semester exams will not be pushed back until the waiver is approved or declined.
“If we find out that the waiver does not go through, then they will decide ‘okay, do we need to move some underclassmen semester exams to that Tuesday?’” Comalander said.
For now, expect to be at school on May 30.
“Right now, it’s on the books that we’ll be here May 30 and have to be in attendance,” Comalander said. “We’ll have to wait and see, and hopefully we will know an answer sooner rather than later from TEA, but they’re dealing with the entire state of Texas, so it might take a month or two.”
