This afternoon, Coppell ISD Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt announced via email that school closures will extend throughout Friday due to continuing unsafe weather conditions and power outages.

Power outages are expected to continue throughout the week because of a shortage of electricity generation, and the weather forecast predicts more snow and ice tonight and on Wednesday. Many households have also faced issues with water pipes freezing, and the City of Coppell issued a water conservation message Monday afternoon.

“We wanted to go ahead and make this announcement through the end of the week so it was something that people didn’t have to be concerned about,” CISD director of communications Amanda Simpson said. “People are suffering right now. Suffering without power, suffering without water, and it’s a lot that people are dealing with.The district recognizes this and there are some very considerable safety concerns.”

Currently, CISD is planning to reopen for both in-person and remote learning normally on Monday.

“It’s a good decision,” New Tech @ Coppell sophomore Namyuktha Prakash said. “Right now, I’m trying to get into different apps on my phone and it’s not working. Everything is slowed down so it wouldn’t be a great decision to have school. It eases the stress a bit that way. But, in some ways, I do think school was an outlet for people and now we’re all stuck at home again.”

Although the district only has one allotted bad weather day remaining on April 2, Simpson thinks the school year will not be extended because of waivers the Texas Education Agency (TEA) plans to grant for required minutes of school.

“Our school year should not be impacted,” Simpson said. “The TEA has granted some waivers this week to close for the winter weather, so although I can’t say for certain, it looks like we will be asking for those waivers.”

In his email, Dr. Hunt’s expressed concern and frustration regarding the significant power outages and the issues they are creating.

“The superintendent knows what people are going through,” Simpson said. “He is joining in on that feeling that this shouldn’t have happened and plans to see why it happened and do what we can so it won’t happen again.”

To Simpson, safety is the most important thing, and the extended time will allow the district to prepare for infrastructure damage or other concerns.

“You can’t learn if you’re not safe, you can’t work if you’re not safe, and we want everybody to be safe,” Simpson said. “I think that’s very important and hopefully something that our community needs to hear.”