This just in from the Dallas Independent School District, which, apparently, no longer adheres to its 6 a.m.-morning-of policy when it comes to announcing closings:
Continuing weather-related issues will keep Dallas ISD schools and administrative offices closed on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Continue to seek warm shelter and stay off those roads if you can!That sound coming from the other room is the boy screaming in joy and the wife ... not. That's one way to solve a budget crisis? But in my day, they didn't cancel classes 'cause of cold and ice. No, sir. Why, let me tell you about the winter of '83 ...
Update at 5:26 p.m.: DISD spokesman Jon Dahlander -- who's worked for the district for 15 years and was a student for 12 years before that -- can't recall the last time it called off three days due to weather. Problem is, he reminds this evening, there are but two make-up days on the calendar: April 22 (which is Good Friday) and May 23. So, how will DISD handle the third?
We don't know yet," he says. "It's too early. We'll have some discussions and make some recommendations to the board. It's been a long time since we've seen something like this." He says that if the district were to try to just write off that third day as a lost day, it would first have to ask for a waiver from the Texas Education Agency.
As for why the district called off school for Thursday, it was a combination of several factors -- remaining icy roads, the potential for more rolling blackouts tomorrow and the fact that "in all of our parking lots and on the steps outside the schools, there are still all kinds of chances for people to slip and fall. It's better to be safe than sorry."
