Conroe ISD, along with all other school districts in the 58-county area affected by Hurricane Harvey, will not have to make up any school days that were cancelled due to the natural disaster, according to the Texas Education Agency.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced Aug. 29 all school districts within the area included in his disaster proclamation from Gov. Greg Abbott are eligible to apply for a Missed School Day waiver.

“We will apply for the waiver,” CISD Superintendent Don Stockton said. “So we have been assured by the state that those six days we were out of school will be waived. We’re just planning on moving forward now and trying to get things back to normal as much as possible.”

The waiver omits the school districts from having to make up any of the scheduled instructional days that had to be cancelled because of Hurricane Harvey, later in the school year.

According to the statement released by TEA, for districts and charter schools that had already begun the 2017-18 school year prior to Aug. 28, such as CISD and Tomball ISD, the waiver applies to school days missed from Aug. 25-Sept. 1.

For districts and charter schools that were scheduled to begin the 2017-18 school year the week of Aug. 28, such as Magnolia ISD, the waiver applies to school days missed from Aug. 28-Sept. 1.

Stockton said the waiver plays a vital role in helping students get back into their normal routines.

“One of the things that’s important for communities to do now is to get back to normalcy,” Stockton said. “School plays a huge part of that because kids need to be in school and parents need to be able to go back to work. When you have to add additional days to the school calendar, that’s not something that’s planned for and it disrupts family time. There’s never a good place to add school days once your calendar is set because people plan their lives around it.”

Students and staff in CISD, TISD and MISD will return to school Sept. 5.

Stockton also noted that no CISD facilities or ongoing constructions sites sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Harvey, meaning classes should not have any further delays from the natural disaster.

CISD opened College Park High School as a shelter for hurricane evacuees from Aug. 26-30 and also hosted a donation drive Sept. 1 to support the Montgomery County Food Bank and hurricane relief efforts.

“Montgomery County is an incredible county filled with generous and kind people and this is a time that our county is going to shine because we’re going to help each other,” Stockton said.

Stockton said further hurricane relief efforts will be announced once the district is able to assess the needs of each of its communities.