Why is Keller the only school district making up the “ice day” that is adding an extra day to the school year? Why didn’t they get a waiver?
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) requires schools to build two “make-up days” for school closures into the adopted school calendar. In the event that the district deems it necessary to close school on a scheduled instructional day, the make-up days are to be used to ensure that the minimum days of instruction are provided. If a district misses more than two days of instruction because of weather-related occurrences during the school year, approval to excuse additional days must be requested.
During development of the calendar, the calendar committee, executive cabinet, District Education Improvement Committee and the KISD Board of Trustees takes into account previous calendars, legal requirements, National Holidays and other district calendars across the state, and calendars of neighboring districts. The district takes careful consideration in placement of inclement weather days. In the 2009-10 school year, the decision was made to use April 2 and June 4 (Teacher Preparation Day).
In addition, the decision was made to use June 4 first in the event of bad weather. Due to the cancellation of school on January 7, 2010, students will be required to attend school on June 4. KISD Teachers will be required to attend school on Saturday, June 5 to make up the designated Teacher Preparation Day.
While each school district is different, several area schools also chose to include an inclement weather day at the end of the 2009-10 calendar including Lewisville ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Arlington ISD, Mansfield ISD and Coppell ISD.