Time's ticking for some San Antonio students who may see longer school days soon. After heating system failures led to school closures, the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) faces the task of squeezing in extra minutes to make up for lost instructional time. To ensure compliance with Texas' requirement of 75,600 operational minutes per school year, some SA schools may have to extend their daily schedules by 3 to 11 minutes.
In the wake of the temperature turmoil that began on January 16, SAISD temporarily shuttered 18 schools to address the issue. Fox San Antonio reports that specific schedule alterations will be communicated directly to families and staff by the principals of the schools involved. To cover for missing days, the district is seeking a waiver from the Texas Education Agency to exclude the lost time from state attendance reports.
Superintendent Jaime Aquino underscored the district's commitment to student safety in a statement that highlighted the proactive closure of schools to ensure comfortable learning environments. Simultaneously, the district plans to maintain about 1,100 portable climate-control units through March, according to a report by the Express News.
A strategy for the longer term involves addressing the variety of heating systems in use, with Aquino stating, "We have five different control systems, which is really inefficient." Despite these challenges, reopening was nearly complete with attendance bouncing back to 85% on Monday, a significant hike from an a all-time low of 54% witnessed on January 16. As for the next steps, Aquino has thanked other local school districts for their technical assistance and acknowledged the cardinal role of community patience during these difficult times.
With extensive evaluations and repairs ongoing, SAISD's Chief of Staff Toni Thompson said it may take a few weeks before the district can produce an after-action report detailing the causes of the heating failures at each school. Moreover, the school board has established a special committee to pore over these issues. While a state waiver may exempt some closures, others might be accounted for by additional minutes per school day or by using dedicated inclement weather days built into the academic calendar. "In the next few weeks, we'll determine who needs to make up what," Thompson told the Express News, ensuring forthcoming communication with the SAISD community.
