GROVES — Employees with Port Neches-Groves Independent School District won’t have to worry about lost time off due to Hurricane Harvey thanks to its school board.

This week trustees approved two resolutions allowing payment to employees, both non-exempt and contract, for missing instructional days due to the catastrophic flooding associated with Harvey.

“We didn’t want people coming to work when it was dangerous and policy allows us to compensate employees when the district is closed,” Interim Superintendent Jimmy Creel said during the board meeting.

In addition, trustees approved the submission of a missed school day waiver for instructional days missed from Aug. 25 through Sept. 8. Staff and students will not have to make up the lost days.

Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced on Aug. 29 that school districts and charter schools within Gov. Greg Abbott’ 58-county disaster declaration for Hurricane Harvey can submit the waivers due to adverse weather conditions, according to information from the Texas Education Agency.

“Hurricane Harvey hit our state as many districts prepared to begin the new school year. In some communities, the school year was already underway,” Commissioner Morath said in a press release. “High winds, heavy rains and flooding have had a devastating effect on campuses throughout a large portion of Texas. Along with everyone at the Texas Education Agency, we stand ready to assist our schools in the weeks ahead.”

As a result of this waiver, school systems in disaster counties that have missed school days as referenced above due to the hurricane will not have to make up those days on the school calendar. Each Missed School Day Waiver is worth the number of operational minutes for that day on the school’s calendar up to 420 waiver minutes per day.

“For the board to know, we don’t take this lightly. There was a lot of consternation and thought when it comes to safety,” Creel said. “Every time we extended the days off we weighed the consequences. Looking back, hindsight is 20/20 and I believe we made the right decision.”

During the Superintendent’s Report portion of the meeting Creel addressed the issue of going forward with the Sept. 8 football game.

He called it a hard decision to make as to whether or not to play the game. He knew that first responders had been working around the clock as well as his maintenance crews.

“I just wasn’t 100 percent sure the timing was right,” he said.

But when Creel went to the opposite side of the stadium and saw the crowd that had gathered for the game against Baytown Sterling, he knew the decision was the right one.

“Everybody I talked to said it was nice to get back to normalcy and get things off their minds,” he said.

Students in PNGISD had just started completed their first week of school when Harvey struck. Classes resumed on Monday.