I wanted to provide you another update with additional information that we have learned since my letter to you yesterday. Although we are all eager to welcome our students back to school, there are a number of concerns we are still addressing across the district.
While power has become much more reliable in the last day, potable water continues to be an issue. Mayor Turner announced late yesterday that the City of Houston could be on a boil-water notice until possibly Monday. In addition, a large number of our campuses are located in municipal utility districts (MUDs) that have boil-water notices. We suffered total food loss at many of our schools. As I shared with you yesterday, several of our campuses sustained major water damage. In addition, one-fifth of our portable buildings were negatively impacted. Our maintenance and operations teams continue to work diligently to address the issues and make repairs. Damage to Swenke Elementary School was extensive, and a separate communication will be shared later today regarding plans for our Swenke students and staff.
After much discussion, we have decided that Monday, Feb. 22 will be a staff work day (no student instruction either on-campus or remote). On-campus instruction and CFISD Connect remote learning will resume on Tuesday, Feb. 23. Extracurricular activities resumed today and will continue next week as previously scheduled.
Not only will Monday provide us with an extra day for water quality to improve across the district, but it will also allow more time for our nutrition services team to restock food that was lost, maintenance and operations teams another day to repair damaged facilities, and teachers time to get into their classrooms and assess any damage they may have incurred to their instructional materials or classroom technology before students return.
Thank
you for your continued support during this trying time, as I know many of you
are dealing with your own challenges this week regarding water damage. We will
continue to monitor and assess the situation throughout the district, and I
will provide you with another update tomorrow.
