Bear Creek March 2018

KATY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
WWW.KATYISD.ORG
IMPORTANT DATES
March 7 th - Family Night (No Homework Assigned)
March 30 th - Holiday/Students and Staff
MARCH 12 TH -16 TH
KATY ISD RANKS AS THE TOP SCHOOL DISTRICT
IN THE GREATER HOUSTON AREA
The 2018 Best School Districts rankings have been announced and
looks like “The Best is in the West” for the Greater Houston area,
with Katy Independent School District taking the top spot.
Niche, a ranking and review organization for K-12 schools, assesses
school districts across America every year. Katy ISD received an
overall grade of “A+” for its outstanding educational accomplishments.
The rankings are based on rigorous analysis of key statistics,
reviews from students and parents, as well as data from the U.S.
Department of Education. Ranking factors include state test scores,
college readiness, graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores, teacher quality,
public school district ratings and more.
Katy ISD is known as one of the fastest growing school districts in the
country and currently has an enrollment of over 77,000+ students.
BAD WEATHER MAKE-UP DAYS
Texas weather has not been kind and continues to bring many
challenges to our community. Due to the wintery conditions that
caused the District’s closure in mid-January, we need to alert you
to a change to our 2017-18 Instructional Calendar.
As you may know, Katy ISD, along with all Texas school districts, is
required by state law to have 75,600 minutes of instructional time
built into its calendar each year. While the Texas Education Agency
(TEA) granted our district a waiver for missed instructional time
this past fall as a result of Hurricane Harvey related closures, the
District has been informed that waivers will not be provided for
January’s bad weather days.
Unfortunately, our students lost significant instructional time this
year. Monday, February 19 th was currently designated as a bad
weather day and was used to make up instructional time for all
students. Additionally, in order to be in compliance with state law,
the secondary school day will be extended by ten minutes during
the week of May 14 th -18 th , with dismissal being at 2:45 PM each day.
KatyISD recognizes that this may be an inconvenience for some
families and we apologize ahead of time for that. Just as we must
meet the requirements of the law, it is also just as important that
we are in a position to ensure that we can effectively achieve our
mission to provide educational excellence and opportunities that
prepare our students for success in college, career and life. With
that said, having our students in school to grow and learn is of the
utmost importance. As always, your understanding and support is
greatly appreciated.
8 March 2018 | Bear Creek Community Newsletter