NISD Team,

I hope everyone is safe right now during this weather challenge – it’s like nothing many of us have seen before. As we continue to do our best to take care of ourselves and our families, I want everyone to know where we are in the school district. As I write this on Tuesday, February 16, Northwest ISD has already made the announcement that Tuesday and Wednesday will be official Snow Days, which means no In-Person nor Remote Learning. Again, we want everyone concentrating on taking care of each other until we get rid of this treacherous weather.

At this time, Northwest ISD is also making the decision to extend the Snow Days through Friday, February 19, 2021. Again, we will have no In-Person nor Remote Learning for the rest of this week, and it is our intent to open schools again on Monday, February 22, 2021. Please know this is a difficult decision for us, but there are several reasons for this choice. NISD administrators have been meeting these last couple of days with the emergency teams from our counties and communities, and we truly appreciate their support. Part of those teams also consists of leaders from the National Weather Service.  

In making the decision to close schools this week, we considered the following:

1. Most households in NISD are struggling through the rolling power outages or having no power at all. We do not think it is fair for our families and our staff diverting their attention from safekeeping to school at this time.

2. Our area is expecting another round of snow and/or sleet starting this evening and tomorrow, which will again make our road conditions very challenging.

3. Even if the roads dried out by mid-week, NISD has to be cognizant of the power issues we are all facing. Whether we be in-person or remote, that would create the need for huge amounts of power that our families and community members might need at home.

4. Our crews are going through all of our schools right now, and we are finding some significant damage already from the cold weather, and it might very well take us through the week (and weekend) to have some of our schools ready for students and staff by next Monday.

At this time, NISD, and many of our area state leaders, are working with the Texas Education Agency to try to extend the “snow day” waiver through the rest of this week. We will not have to make up Tuesday and Wednesday, and we are going to ask TEA to give us grace for Thursday and Friday as well. Our students, staff, and families have been through so much this school year, we feel this is the right decision for the state to make, and I will keep everyone updated on this progress.

So right now we need to concentrate on taking care of each other and those around us. There are many of our families and community members suffering through this ordeal, so for those of us who can, let’s reach out to those we know are in need and give support. The crew of NISD will do our very best to get everything ready to go for next Monday, and we’ll return (hopefully) to a little bit of normalcy….if we know what that is these days. Thank you for your support of our kids and our schools!

Ryder Warren

Superintendent of Schools