To close or stay open? Ahead of the eclipse, Texas schools weighed logistical hurdles versus learning opportunities

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Next Monday, Denise Crettenden and her husband plan to hustle their fifth- and tenth-grade daughters out of bed around 4 a.m., about three hours earlier than they’re used to.

Instead of driving to school two minutes away, the family of four will travel two hours to the tiny town of Kerrville’s eclipse festival, where they hope to experience more than four minutes of eclipse totality with thousands of other visitors.

Crettenden’s kids will not be cutting class. Seguin Independent School District, along with several other Texas districts in the eclipse’s path, has scheduled April 8 off because of the astronomical event.

Swaths of Texas, including big cities like Austin and Dallas, sit within the path of totality, when the moon will completely block the sun. According to NASA, the rare solar event will not happen again for 20 years — and likely not in the state for centuries. Because Texas has been recognized as one of the best places to view the eclipse, cities and small towns alike are bracing for thousands of visitors and congested roads.

In the weeks leading to the eclipse, Texas school districts within the path of totality weighed safety and organizational hurdles to decide whether to close or stay open that day. Based on data from prime viewing states during the 2017 solar eclipse, the Texas School Safety Center projected increased traffic could mean school bus routes might “see an increase in travel time that would put some students getting home past midnight.”

Seguin ISD canceled school after realizing it had an insufficient reserve of substitutes to cover for the large number of teachers who asked for the day off, Superintendent Veronica Vijil said. Five hours north, Como-Pickton ISD also decided to close after local law enforcement officials told the district they could not guarantee a timely response to emergencies if schools stayed open on April 8, Superintendent Greg Bower said.

Other districts, including the biggest ones within the path of totality, decided the learning benefits outweighed the difficulties the eclipse will bring.

Round Rock ISD, which serves almost 47,000 students, will brave the day’s logistical challenges and provide a normal school day. Their buses are equipped with electronic tags, which will allow parents to monitor if they’re running late in case of heavy traffic, district officials said.

Some parents were unhappy with the district’s decision to stay open, Round Rock ISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez said. Even though the district expects a low attendance rate on Monday, administrators chose to stay open for the families who would struggle to find child care otherwise.

“It’s easier just to shut down, to be honest with you,” Azaiez said. “But who’s going to make it a learning experience if no one is around?”

Some classrooms integrated eclipse-related curriculum into the days leading up to the event. Seguin ISD provided teachers with videos of picture books being read aloud to share with students, including stories like “Total Solar Eclipse: A Stellar Friendship Story” and “A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse.” Emily Prochnow, astronomy teacher at Seguin High School, plans to show her eleventh- and twelfth-graders what a total eclipse looks like by simulating one on a smaller scale either on the football field or in a very long hallway.

Districts have amassed solar eclipse glasses for their students and staff through various avenues, primarily through donations from scientific institutions. The Perot Museum donated one million pairs to schools around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to the Dallas Morning News. Teachers have instructed the kids to always wear their glasses when looking at the sun and that it’s only safe to take them off during totality.

San Antonio Council Member Adriana Rocha Garcia spearheaded a field trip to the city’s northside for students from 11 different schools in her district, parts of which will not experience totality. The event will feature multiple NASA scientists, from ones who have worked on the Hubble Space Telescope to moon landers.

Regardless of the inconveniences the eclipse will cause, educators hope the event will help raise students’ interest in STEM fields.

“If we inspire a few kids to get involved in this area, then I think I'll be happy,” said Chris Packham, professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio and co-organizer of the event Rocha Garcia helped put together. “It's just going to be absolutely an experience of a lifetime. I could say something like, ‘I'll be over the moon,’ but that would be a bad pun.”

Disclosure: The University of Texas at San Antonio has been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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