PISD: Only two snow days likely to be made up
Posted on Feb 8, 2011
in Behind the Scenes by Charles Richards
School officials say they expect to have to make up only two days of the six school days lost to weather in the first 40 days of 2011.
“The state requires all school districts to build two bad-weather days into their calendar,” said Mark Hudson, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Paris Independent School District.
“We’ve got two days on April 9 and 16 — those are both on Saturday,” Hudson said Tuesday afternoon. “So we will make up two required days on those two Saturdays. Then we will ask for a waiver on the additional days.”
Even as Hudson was speaking, Paris ISD officials were calling off school for Wednesday as a result of a Winter Storm Warning in effect from midnight Tuesday until 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The forecast was for a 70 percent chance of snow overnight with accumulation of up to 1 inch of snow and temperatures as low as 7 degrees.
“We missed one day in January because of the weather, and then four days last week,” Hudson said.
Students and parents need not worry that Spring Break will be canceled, or the end of the school year delayed, or additional Saturday classes scheduled, Hudson said.
“No, no, no, we’ll get a waiver on those other days,” Hudson said. “I won’t say it’s cut and dried, but the TEA (Texas Education Agency) has pretty much said it will excuse pretty much any time you have weather issues, power issues, and that kind of thing.“
Hudson added: “As widespread as this thing has been, you know, covdring pretty much all of North and Northeast Texas, and even other parts of the state, I don’t foresee any difficulty.”
The two weather days are May 13 and May 20 for the North Lamar school district, Feb. 21 and May 6 for Prairiland, and May 13 and May 20 for Roxton.
Hudson said the Paris school district will wait until the threat of bad weather is over before submitting its request for a waiver on the additional days lost.
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Charles Richards moved to Paris in 2004 after retiring from a 40-year career in journalism – the last 26 years as a news writer and sports writer with The Associated Press in Dallas and Washington, D.C. In mid-2004, The Paris News coaxed him out of retirement, and he began covering the police, court and regional beat for The Paris News. Then in early 2005, he was switched to coverage of a sharply divided Paris City Council. He was appointed by the City Council in 2006 to the 12-member City Charter Review Commission, which extensively rewrote the outmoded document. His writing awards include two first-place awards in statewide competition for feature writing. The most recent was his 2005 story on a Paris doctor’s startling use of leeches in a successful attempt to re-attach a man’s severed ear. Over his career, Richards’ interview subjects include Alabama Gov. George Wallace, President Bill Clinton, President George W. Bush, David Koresh, Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and numerous other political and sports figures. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He lives in Paris with his wife, Barbara, who is retired after 30 years as a teacher and high school counselor.
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