This has been a very difficult week for Texas and our community.
Extended
below-freezing temperatures and resulting power outages throughout our state
and region took their toll. Many of you were without heat and water for longer
than anyone should have to endure. Ruptured pipes caused damage to many CFISD
facilities and impacted countless employees’ and community members’ homes. The
impact of the destruction from this unprecedented freeze will be felt for weeks
and months to come.
In
addition to the water damage, many schools’ food supplies were completely lost
due to the sustained outages. Combined with the fact that several campuses are
in areas where there was unreliable water service, we felt that it was best to
close our schools this week in order to allow more time for recovery and
restoration.
I am very thankful for our outstanding maintenance and operations teams, who have already made great progress with inspection, clean-up and repairs that will continue throughout the weekend. Kudos to all the staff members working overtime to help us safely resume our school year as soon as possible. We are still hopeful that we will be able to return on Monday.
Restoration crews at Langham Creek High School, top, and Swenke Elementary work to clean up water from the floors following this week’s freezing
temperatures that caused pipe damage to campuses.
We received
confirmation from Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath that
CFISD will receive a waiver for the missed instructional days, exempting us
from adding additional days at the end of 2020-2021. Although we lost a week of
instruction, we will make sure our students catch up while providing additional
support for those who need it.
I
don’t need to tell you how challenging of a school year this has already been
without the added stressor of this devastating winter weather event. My heart
goes out to all of you who have spent the last week bundled up inside your
homes, scrambling to find clean water or ripping out carpet and sheetrock.
I
continue to be proud of this community and the resilience and support for each
other you show amid the hardest of times. I will never forget your amazing
response following the widespread flood damage after Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
We made it through that tough time then and emerged stronger as a community. I
know we will overcome this together as well.
We
will be communicating further details to employees and parents about the status
of specific campuses as we have more information this weekend.
~ Mark Henry, Ed.D.
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