Wet weather causes schedule adjustments at Houston School District

HOUSTON, Miss. (WCBI) – The weather has wreaked havoc with class schedules in the Houston School District.

As students at Houston Lower Elementary boarded the bus, Superintendent Tony Cook was checking the latest weather forecast.

“Lot of rain on some of these old county roads, backroads, water gets over the road,” said Superintendent Cook.

That was a major concern as buses had to travel the roads, full of students.

Heavy rains Monday morning, along with the threat of more rain in the evening, prompted Cook to dismiss all Houston schools early Monday afternoon and call for a later start time Tuesday morning.

“Our buses are on the road at six o clock, when it’s dark, it’s really hard for a bus driver to determine how deep water is, and whether they should drive through it or not drive through it, getting kids to and from school is probably my biggest concern, while we have them here we feel pretty good about safety, issues we have under our control, weather is not in our control,” explained Cook.

The weather related schedule changes might have caused some inconvenience, but overall parents, students and teachers have adapted.

“In the past 13 years I cannot recall a time it rained this much, I would like to brag on students, although schedules have been interrupted, our students have come ready to learn each day, and that makes a difference,” said Katonya Gathings, Principal at Houston Lower Elementary School.

Superintendent Cook planned to continue monitoring the weather and will let parents, teachers and students know of any schedule changes through social media, local media and a district wide alert system known as all call.

As of right now, Houston Schools should be back to regular schedule for Wednesday.