EPISD: ‘Better Safe Than Sorry’
El Paso Independent school district officials said Thursday they’d rather be safe than sorry when it comes to deciding to delay the start of the school day on days with risks of inclement weather.
Several local school districts and private schools decided to delay the start of school on Thursday because of the risk for freezing rain and slick roads.
Schools in EPISD, Anthony ISD, Canutillo ISD, Gadsden ISD and San Elizario ISD all started school at ten Thursday morning.
Ysleta, Socorro and Clint both waited until 5:00 am to make the call and decided to have a normal school day.
Melissa Martinez, EPISD’s Spokeswoman said the district works with the City-County Emergency Management District to make a decision.
However, the weather watch for freezing rain did not begin until 4:00am.
Martinez said the last time they waited until the early morning hours to determine if they should start late – some parents didn’t get the message. And considering some students are picked up by the bus an hour and a half early, the district decided to give parents a heads up the night before – so that they could better plan their morning.
“The concern was getting the notification out to parents, and we’ve seen it recently where we had a storm that hit real quick and real early in the morning and it created a little bit of chaos to our parents just getting the word out.”
