Parents and staff,
I want to recap and summarize how school districts make decisions during severe weather. I, along with my fellow superintendents in districts around us and down south to Humble, are currently taking the heat for being open today. I want to explain how this works.
Superintendents are not trained weather experts. During ice, snow or rain events, we most often have a Zoom call with the Weather Service and the Region IV executive director. We did so this morning at 4 a.m. All Region IV superintendents were informed of the situation and were told that it appears the heavy rain will stay north of the 105 corridor, and we all knew that from Shepherd north overnight being bad. All superintendents on the call made the decision to stay open today because we must rely on expert opinion from the ones who guide local school districts.
Cleveland ISD was closed Wednesday, May 1, because of the rising waters on Tuesday that affected many of our staff and families. Again, information received from the experts at 1:10 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, said that the rising waters of the East Fork of the San Jacinto River will rise to levels by Wednesday morning that were the same as Imelda in 2019. Cleveland was given a specific warning to expect that same type of flooding. I was already told that the waters were rising extremely fast on Tuesday and that, combined with the message from the Weather Service, prompted me to close school a little early to get kids home.
It was a good decision because by 5:30 p.m., FM 1010 was completely cut off down south. Of our 12,300 students in CISD, 8,500 of them live south of Bella Vista. CISD did get every child home Tuesday safely.
Knowing that the river would be 10-15 feet higher by Wednesday morning, it was unsafe for staff to navigate to work and unsafe for students and parents to be out. Wednesday went well and the waters receded. Thursday morning – today – we had our weather Zoom call and all superintendents followed the recommendation of the experts.
All I ask is that before you want to pass judgment on any leader, or any superintendent, please know that we always do the best we can with the information we are provided. My superintendent colleagues are some of the hardest working people I know and to see them beat up over something out of our control does bother me. And I’m not blaming the Weather Service either. They provide us the information their computer programs and forecast models feed to them.
We do have students testing today, as other districts do, and the Texas Education Agency is working with us on this weather situation. I have requested specific consideration for the counties that are declared disaster areas by the governor and had to be closed. Latest word is that TEA is honoring this request. More info will follow.
This message was mainly to let you know that we are all working hard each and every day, and never easily make decisions such as these. I am as frustrated as you are and so are my superintendent colleagues. We will get through this and reflect on being better prepared for the next situation, because there will be one.
Stephen W. McCanless
Cleveland ISD superintendent
I’m no weatherman but even I could see on the weather radar that there was severe rainfall to our north yesterday into the night. Rain had already filled our rivers and streams the night before, so all that water was going to go somewhere and since water generally flows south in our region. Well it was quit clear that was a bad decision when it was made last night. I was wondering last night what in the world you folks were thinking. Glad you had expert advice, but next time, listen to someone who knows what they are talking about or just look at the weather for yourself. I’m sure you could have figured out what was already clear then.
I agree it was a bad call to have put all staff bus drivers and students a risk , bus drivers Risking there lives snd out kids life’s because of yll bad judgment, you should think before you make a drastic decision decision to risk everybody’s lives y’all the ones that make the big money y’all the ones that are superintendents for a reason . I am quite disappointed at the superintendence and supervisors for CISD and the surroundings very poor judgment very poor decision making. This operation could’ve been a disaster. All it takes is one bus with 75 to 80 kids to fall in the water. Do we want to see that why not stop and think before we act. This action is called risk assessment access for you act.
Nobody seems to want Mr. McCanless’ job – just to complain.
Likely the same people that vote against any meaningful investment in the district.
Keyboard warriors on full display.
It’s called a weather ‘forecast’ and not ‘weather-facts’ for a reason.
Do you really think that the district would intentionally put students and property in harm’s way. Come on…