Your school may or may not be open on Monday. Check for updates before you head out.
Houston ISD reported that nearly half of its campuses are without power as of Friday and dozens have sustained wind and tree damage following severe storms Thursday.
State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles closed school Friday because of the “safety of our kids,” and he was aiming to have all HISD schools open by Monday after 136 campuses lost power. However, he said district was probably not going to be able to open all campuses by then, given the extent of the power outages and storm-related damage. About 122 campuses remained without power Friday night.
Four HISD schools sustained such severe damage that they may not be ready to open Monday, and others may remain closed if power isn’t restored, but the exact number of schools that may remain closed Monday is still unknown because the cleanup process is ongoing, Miles said.
HISD said is working with CenterPoint Energy, city and county officials to ensure it can safely serve approximately 184,000 students next week. Miles said the district plans to inform parents over the weekend about whether their child’s school would be open or closed on Monday.
“Even on Monday, if we don’t have power in some schools, even if the building isn’t affected, we probably will not send kids to those schools, but let’s wait and see how that turns out before we make any decision about that,” Miles said.
Miles visited the four campuses that sustained the most extensive damage – Sinclair, Pugh, Robinson and Paige elementaries – Friday to evaluate the extent of the damage and establish a plan for school operations next week.
Sinclair is not too far from my house. I drove through that area on Friday on the way from a friend’s house where we had been charging devices, and there were a ton of downed trees. The story doesn’t say about Sinclair, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the cause of the damage at Sinclair, as it was at Pugh. I wish everyone at those schools the best. HISD has been sending out updates about their status, and I expect they will continue to do so, so check your inbox or wherever you get HISD messages. If your school isn’t open, they may have your kids go to a different campus. Hopefully all this disruption will be resolved quickly.
:UPDATE: The latest update, from Saturday afternoon, is that there were still 77 schools without power. The hope is still to have nearly all schools open tomorrow. Further updates will be out later today. Also, it was indeed tree damage at Sinclair, which this story describes as the school in the worst shape right now.