Breaking news: tentative plans call for virtual learning due to winter weather fallout

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Frisco ISD

The impact of the severe winter weather that put Frisco and most of Texas in a deep freeze is impacting Frisco ISD beyond Friday as the district is tentatively planning for virtual learning for Monday and Tuesday, but perhaps even longer for some campuses.

Wingspan Staff

The following information was posted on the Frisco ISD website Friday afternoon, with parents receiving the same information via email. Wingspan plans to resume daily postings

“Parents,

This week has been challenging for the state and community as we have again faced extraordinary challenges beyond our control. Throughout this crisis, the Frisco ISD maintenance department has worked tirelessly to protect our facilities from significant damage as a result of the extreme weather conditions and power outages. In addition, significant steps were taken to reduce the amount of resources our facilities utilize and in some cases, buildings were taken completely off the electric grid in order to protect our infrastructure and help conserve energy. This also helped our electric providers prioritize power to homeowners.

We are hopeful these efforts have been successful in reducing any severe damage. Thankfully at this time, there have only been minor issues reported in some of our buildings.

As conditions continue to improve, Frisco ISD will begin bringing our 80 buildings back online with the guidance of our utility providers. This will be a time and labor intensive process that will allow us to continue to assess for any additional damage to our facilities. The District is committed to ensuring that our buildings are safe and stable environments for students and staff when they return to campus.

Unfortunately, because of the way in which we are required to bring campuses back online with our providers, and the time frame in which they will be available to assist our maintenance teams, this process will take longer than a few days. Frisco ISD cannot safely bring students and staff back into our buildings on Monday. Our hope is to resume on-campus instruction as soon as possible for face-to-face learners, but the District must restore power and water and resupply food to our schools before students and staff can be back on campuses.

Our tentative plan at this time is for all students to participate in asynchronous virtual learning on Monday and Tuesday. It may be Wednesday before our elementary campuses are able to return to on-campus learning, and it could be March 1 for our secondary campuses. This plan is dependent on the restoration of our campuses and reliability of electricity and internet connectivity to our communities and campuses. FISD will share an update with you Sunday regarding the upcoming week.

We know this has been a trying time for our students and families, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to reopen our schools safely.”