WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Waco ISD walks 25 News through the decision making process with multiple departments when frigid temperatures hit Central Texas. This includes the police department and more.
Each department has a unique set of responsibilities and requirements when Old Man Winter decides to make its mark across the area.
- Waco ISD has 44 buses and an additional five spares ready to go in case an malfunctions happen early in the morning, including the heaters not working properly
- The district is in close contact with other school districts across the area as well as the McLennan County Emergency Management Department
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Sometimes during the Central Texas winter, schools will close due to the potential of severe winter weather — but for some like Waco ISD, they kept their doors open for learning.
Their decision-making process starts at the police department.
“What I will do is make contact with the Waco McLennan County Emergency Management office and we see what’s going on with the weather system," said Coordinator for Emergency Preparedness and Security at Waco ISD Police Department, Officer Donnie Ramsey.
"I will keep in contact with other local school districts to see what their plan is — I will communicate with the downtown administrative team with what we’ve got going on, what we see."
When the cold hits overnight —
“I will get out in a patrol car, we’ll start hitting the streets at 3 a.m. — we’ll start checking bridges and overpasses, especially those over the Brazos River, which will make the surface temperatures drop," Officer Ramsey said.
"I’ll make sure I hit the four main parts of Waco."
44 routes to school means 44 buses driving all around the area — making sure everything runs warm and smooth.
“The mechanics, myself and the entire team, we always try to get here before the drivers, so we can get every bus in our fleet started and warm," said Assistant Director of Waco ISD Transportation, Monique Brock.
"We do start an additional five spare buses on the yard so if we run into any issues, we have this spare bus already preheated where we don’t cause any delays of transportation."
How does each building prepare across nearly three million square feet of campus total?
“We plan for the worst and hope for the best — a team comes early in the morning, they check all our temperatures throughout the district, to make sure every building is in conditions to receive kids and staff," said Director of Facilities Maintenance and Custodial Services at Waco ISD, Alex Villanuva.
“We do a lot of preventative maintenance with our systems — that is basically us creating work orders to extend the life cycle of our equipment. We change out filters for mechanical, we clean coils in the summer, we check the heat strips before the cold weather comes in to make sure every unit is working."
Then preparing warm meals for thousands of students each day...
“We just have to come in about 20 minutes earlier, so it’s ready for the kids to come in,” said Kitchen Manager at Waco ISD, Rosa Cotton.
“It’s so cold outside and we want a warm place for them and a warm meal to fill their tummies to start their day."
