Keller ISD, Northwest ISD cancel classes through Feb. 19 due to severe weather

Officials with Northwest ISD and Keller ISD announced Feb. 16 that all schools and offices in both districts will remain closed through Feb. 19 and that classes are canceled for in-person and remote learners.

All meetings and events have been canceled, including a Feb. 22 NISD board of trustees meeting. NISD Director of Communications Lesley Weaver said the district recognized that historically low temperatures, hazardous travel conditions and prolonged power outages would complicate learning.

A Feb. 15 announcement also explained that NISD has one planned snow day in the instructional calendar and that the district has requested that the Texas Education Agency waive the need to make up further snow days. Weaver said NISD has not officially received that waiver as of Feb. 16 but that TEA officials are discussing giving districts three days of waivers in light of the widespread power outages.

Taking extreme weather conditions into account, KISD officials announced that in-person and remote classes will be canceled for the remainder of the week. Students may be obligated to make up missed days using a Bad Weather Day on April 2, the district said in a statement.

"We are hopeful the state will provide some relief on required instructional time given the statewide state of emergency due to this winter storm, and we will certainly keep you informed regarding that process," the statement said.

Weaver said NISD is working to provide resources and reliable, up-to-date information to district families, but the district’s staffers and offices have been impacted by infrastructure failures as well.

“We're experiencing the same thing in our schools that many homes are. We do have some water damage in several schools. We have schools with rolling power outages, so we’re not necessarily in a better position than people are in their homes,” she said. “As you can imagine, we're having trouble accessing our own website sometimes to do the updates.”

More district information and updates on the ongoing severe weather situation are available at www.kellerisd.net or www.nisdtx.org.

UPDATE: Keller ISD will remain closed through Friday, Feb. 19, due the extreme winter weather's impact on our families and our facilities. No classes, in-person or remote, will be held. Read more at https://t.co/vUKzcVQBWV. #KISDsnowday pic.twitter.com/X4uHXih5WP

— Keller Schools (@KellerISD) February 16, 2021