Petition urges Edinburg CISD to change bad weather make-up day

EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — One Edinburg parent decided to make a petition against a bad weather make-up day.

The Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District decided to make the day after Easter, April 21, a work development day.

This is despite the fact that the academic calendar indicates April 21 was an off day for both students and teachers.

The day was also not originally set up as a bad weather make-up, according to the academic calendar.

Alondra Flores started the petition and is upset that teachers are going to be put to work the Monday after the religious holiday.

“It's a four-day weekend," Flores said. "It is something that gets planned a whole year ahead, so it just baffles me that they didn’t think it through.”

The petition she started "Urge Edinburg CISD To Give Our Teachers their Respected Day off April 21st," has more than 850 people supporting it.

“Teachers want their time off as promised during the beginning of the school year and this is a real big time off as four days in a row is a real big deal, Flores said. "For them to have to rearrange their whole agenda and losing deposits is unnecessary."

Flores reached out to Edinburg CISD School Board Member Luis Alamia to see what could be done.

In a WhatsApp message, Alamia told her the school board has no control as to which day needs to be made up.

ValleyCentral reached out to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to discuss the weather make-up day.

"This is a local decision made by individual school systems such as Edinburg CISD," TEA told ValleyCentral.

“If they are not going to take these calendars into consideration then why make them? Why not respect them and abide by them? That is exactly why it's their responsibility to follow through with them," Flores said.

In a statement, the school district said, "The district calendar includes designated bad weather make-up days, the one under consideration: was Monday, March 17, which fell during spring break, so the district went with Monday, April 21."

Flores hopes the issue gets resolved soon and the day can be moved to May or towards the end of the school year.

“The time is clearly there as they have almost two weeks to do it but the issue of them prolonging is that teachers are already canceling their trips and they are losing deposits and losing money," Flores said.

Easter weekend for Edinburg teachers begins Friday, April 18.