The State of Texas requires public schools to provide a minimum of 75,600 instructional minutes to students during each school year. An unanticipated number of weather delays and cancellations over the past two weeks means the district must recapture missed instructional time in order to meet state requirements.
The district originally scheduled two student holidays (staff professional development days) next week. The district calendar also included an early release day on the Friday before Spring Break.
In order to make up missed school days, the following days will now be REGULAR SCHOOL DAYS:
Thursday, February 9 (Red Day)
Friday, February 10 (Black Day)
Friday, March 10 (now a full day)
The Lubbock-Cooper High School calendar varies slightly from the Lubbock-Cooper ISD calendar each year. The LCHS calendar provides adequate instructional minutes as required by law while including the same holidays and weather days observed by all other Lubbock-Cooper ISD campuses, and also provides multiple days of exemptions from final exams. There are fewer instructional minutes built into the LCHS calendar as compared to the instructional minutes for LCISD elementary and middle schools.
The school delays and cancellations over the past two weeks require LCHS to recapture additional lost instructional minutes. Instead of requiring attendance for another weather day or holiday that has been previously built into the calendar (in addition to the February 9, February 10, and March 10 makeup days), LCHS administrators have opted to add five instructional minutes to the start of the school day beginning Monday, February 6.
This means that the bell for the Tutorials period will ring at 7:55 a.m. (instead of 8:00 a.m.) for the remainder of the school year. The first period bell will remain the same, at 8:40 a.m.
This change applies to Lubbock-Cooper High School only. Daily schedules at all other LCISD campuses will remain the same.
We understand that the adjustment of the February dates provides families with short notice. If your family has planned to be out of town on the previously-scheduled February holidays, please contact your child's campus principal for assistance. Elementary school principals will communicate with parents regarding a plan for Goals Day (originally scheduled for February 9).
If future delays or cancellations become necessary this semester, the instructional time will have to be made up. The district will communicate those plans accordingly.
Please know that decisions surrounding inclement weather are not taken lightly. The process includes constant monitoring of forecasts from multiple weather institutions, review of materials provided by local experts, and dispatching a team of district administrators (including the superintendent) to drive roads throughout the district for first-hand observation of current conditions. There are also many factors to consider, including the safety of students, staff, and parents traveling to and from campuses, the availability of food and warmth for students who have limited or no access to these resources outside of school, the difficulty or inability for many parents to miss work, and the loss of instructional time.
Some have questioned why area schools have not opted to provide virtual instruction during recent weather events. This was a temporary option that essentially waived the requirement for makeup days during significant or lengthy weather events. The Texas Education Agency no longer allows public schools to provide virtual instruction in the event of a weather delay or cancellation.
Sometimes, the decision to delay or cancel school is exactly what is appropriate for that day's conditions. Other times, the decision to delay or cancel ends up being an unnecessary loss of a school day. And, there are times when a decision is made not to delay or cancel based on available forecasts and current conditions, and unpredictable weather changes throughout the day create circumstances that are not ideal for school. In every case, the decision is made with careful consideration of all information available to administrators at that time, and with the best interests of all students and staff in mind.
Thank you for your continued patience, cooperation, and understanding.
