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Richardson ISD will cancel classes on Election Day in November due to a security risk from voters, the district announced Wednesday.
RISD students will have the day off and staff members will have a development day on Nov. 6.
The district said the cancellation of classes was a “precaution due to the thousands of unregistered visitors” who would “gain access to RISD schools serving as voting locations.”
The district decided in January that the next presidential election in two years would be a day where students were out of school for safety. In June, they decided to make the change for this November election. People who oversee elections in our state our glad to see this happen.
Election Day this November will be a holiday for students and a work day for staff at RISD. They are the first district in Texas to do so. The idea is to block potential harm against students with voting strangers in the building.
“They're never alone with students. So they're always supervised while they're in there,” said Chris Moore with Richardson ISD. “But there's so many people coming and going throughout the course of the day and so it’s a safety concern.”
On Election Day, some people who would not normally be allowed in schools will be allowed, like felons who've served their time and have voting rights restored.
Dallas County Elections Administrator Toni Pipppins-Poole says the Texas Association of Elections Administrators wanted the state to address the question of how to make schools safer long before recent tragic events like the Santa Fe school shooting.
“We're trying to get some current legislation passed that will make Election Day a holiday,” she said.
But Pippins-Poole said lawmakers were concerned about the economic impact of a state holiday. She says it’s the next best thing, especially when state law requires a polling place in every voter precinct.
The break in learning is covered from time that the district has banked for bad weather days.
“We'll keep it as a staff development day,” Moore said. “But the student holiday won't extend the school year.”
While candidates are hoping for an Election Day victory, Richardson ISD students will celebrate a day away.
“We hope other districts are just as proactive as Richardson ISD because this is fantastic, and we praise them for going out and doing that,” Pippines-Poole said.
Many other North Texas school districts said they are not making changes to their calendar. Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD said they have not finalized a decision.