TO: Northwest ISD Students, Parents/Caregivers, and Staff

FROM: Ryder Warren, Superintendent

SUBJECT: Superintendent Update

I hope everyone continues to recover from this crazy week. I’ve talked to several NISD staff members, parents, and community members over the last several days, and I know most of us are dealing with various levels of damage and other weather-related issues in our own homes and businesses.
 
After spending the week assessing all of our schools, I need to make everyone aware of a decision we have made about next week. To complete the final assessment of our buildings, we need one day next week to make sure all of the classrooms are ready for our kids. We are going to turn Monday, February 22, into a district/campus workday, so all staff members can get back into their classrooms and workspaces to be ready to start In-Person Learning on Tuesday, February 23. The workday will count as a student holiday for all students, both In-Person and Remote Learners.
 
Please know that even this morning we were contemplating having to go to 100% Remote Learning for all NISD students for this coming week – the challenges have been that great with our buildings. Our teachers and instructional staff had already started planning for this. There were two main issues throughout the week – even this morning, and those were as follows:

  1. More than half of our schools have damage, and many of those have significant damage from the weather challenge we’ve been dealing with since last weekend. We have many classrooms with water damage from burst pipes, and we are doing our best to get those cleaned up as soon as possible. Our maintenance crews have been working non-stop for the last several days.
  2. None of our schools have food. The vast majority of our food has expired from two weeks ago. We had no deliveries this week because of the weather, and our food providers did not foresee us having food until next Wednesday. We do have students who bring their lunches from home, but the vast majority of our kids get breakfast and lunch from our cafeterias.
 
As we worked through the day today, our stars started to align, and this has been the best news we’ve had in a while. Because of the Herculean efforts of our maintenance and other operations’ crews, our buildings should be ready for students next week. We have also contacted food vendors and have mandated deliveries for our students, and these vendors have a plan in place to come through for us.
 
Unless something unforeseen happens this weekend (and it could), this is our plan to reopen our schools. For our parents, caregivers, and staff, I know many of us will be dealing with damage in our own homes, and NISD is trying to be very cognizant of that as we prepare to welcome our children back. And as I try to emphasize in all of these updates, we will get through this challenge together…as we have done all year. Please be safe and thank you for supporting our children and our schools.
 
Ryder Warren
Superintendent of Schools