Local school districts who took time off for the recent winter storms are now choosing make-up days for the time lost.

The Texas Education Agency is now asking school districts and charter schools seeking waivers for the bad weather days for this school year to submit their requests in March.

Snow, sleet and icy conditions have impacted districts statewide over the last several weeks resulting in cancellation of instructional days. As a result, the agency anticipates an influx of waiver requests, according to a press release from TEA. The March time frame allows the full impact of winter weather to be assessed by school districts and charters on their 2013-2014 school year calendars.

Some districts will need a waiver, some will not.

Port Neches-Groves ISD has chosen April 18, which is Good Friday, and May 26, Memorial Day, for their make-up days, according to information on the district’s web page.

Stuart Kieschnick, assistant superintendent at Nederland ISD, said the district has chosen two scheduled teacher in-service days for its inclement weather make-up days.

“We are taking Feb. 17 and April 11,” Kieschnick said.

Port Arthur ISD Superintendent Mark Porterie said the district looked at several scenarios when choosing its make-up days.

“The first option was to use two days of Spring Break, but we figured that most staff and students would not want to reduce Spring Break from five days to three,” Porterie said.

A second option included June 6 and June 7, but those days would have pushed the school calendar back, thus making students return to school after they had received their diplomas. Another option would have been to hold two Saturday school days with at least seven hours of class. The possibility of low attendance shot down this scenario.

The third and final option is to go with Good Friday and Memorial Day.

“After reviewing all the options, the only feasible plan is to use the two previously scheduled holidays as the bad weather make-up days,” he said.

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