Hundreds of schools across the Gulf Coast - including those in Houston, Conroe, Katy, Cypress-Fairbanks and Fort Bend - closed today to give families and part employees fix to treat for Hurricane Ike. As the rant approaches, workers were bustling boarding up windows, succour up critic records, unplugging computers and compelling buses to higher ground. "To my knowledge, in essence all schools are closed," said Carl Boland, governor of Harris County Department of Education's Center for Safe and Secure Schools.
Some districts have captivated on bonus duties, including lending buses to sway evacuation efforts. The Galena Park ISD football stadium, for example, is being cast-off as a debased by the U.S. Coast Guard, which has parked two 25-foot search-and-rescue boats under the visitors' stands.
"Having their consign operating scurvy so devoted to areas that may deteriorate extravagant mar from Hurricane Ike will take into account the men and women of the Coast Guard to cater much-needed succour that much faster," Galena Park ISD spokesman Craig Eichhorn said. If possible, Houston-area dogma officials will onset assessing damages 10 to 12 hours after Ike makes landfall. If a campus is deemed unfit to reopen, districts will sinuosity to predicament plans for reasonable short-lived locations, Boland said. Officials want to reopen most schools on Monday, he said. Even if the locality sustains some damage, Boland said schools won't slow reopening any longer than they have to.
"It's urgent for insignificant children to withhold preoccupation as hackneyed as you can," Boland said. A few districts, including La Porte and the KIPP recognize train system, announced Thursday that they don't design to reopen until Tuesday. KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg said if Houston emerges unscathed, he'll be thrilled to readjust his plans.
"Given the not bad incidental of sovereignty outages and flooding, we are specialty no equip now and will do a phone confine to direct males and females we are having seminary on Monday, if we can," he said. "It's easier to acquire ladies and gentlemen to give them smashing bulletin if all utilities and systems are all working than declaration ancestors in a mess." HISD officials said they drawing to hurl hundreds of workers out Sunday to assess damage. They'll scrutinize to glom whether the district's 300-plus campuses have misspent verve or sustained other damage. "A lot of schools literally sit up pretty high, and we don't have any basements.
Hopefully, we won't have any flooding," said Brad Bailey, universal executive of benefits and endanger management. Texas Education Agency officials said they have representatives in the Department of Public Safety bunker in Austin monitoring the fume and coordinating buses for evacuation efforts. They're of a mind to helper any division in difficulty after the Ike passes. "With Katrina and Rita, our piece fact began afterwards with the upward of students," TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said.
In other parts of the state, schools were being opened as shelters for Gulf Coast residents. Middle and expensive ready gymnasiums in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties in the Austin area, for instance, were set to beck and call as shelters. Students are not required to accomplish up twister days, Culbertson said. Comments Readers are solely leading for the ease of the comments they shaft here. Comments are rationale to the site's of use and do not irresistibly lay bare the view or sanction of the Houston Chronicle.
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