Wylie ISD reopens schools after hail storm cancellations

WYLIE, Texas - Wylie ISD reopened all of its campuses Wednesday after the district canceled classes Tuesday due to hail damage. However, the cleanup and the rebuilding have just barely begun.

P.M. Akin Elementary School is one of three schools in the district hit hardest by hail. Numerous campuses had water leaks, knocked out ceiling tiles and broken glass, causing officials to issue the cancelation notice on Monday evening.

“We have classrooms without windows. They need air conditioning so we have to make sure the system works in all 19 buildings, and then it was really tough to make sure all of the buses were working and everything mechanically correct on that,” said Wylie ISD Superintendent David Vinson.

Several parents praised the school district for its handling of the hail storm and the resulting damage.

“They called. They emailed. They posted on Facebook,” explained one parent. “They were very proactive, I feel, in notifying parents.”

Brand new air conditioning units installed this past weekend were not damaged in the storm. The new units were air lifted onto school roofs and were replacements for 40 units totaled in a previous storm.

“These air conditioning units are ten thousand, twenty thousand a piece commercial units,” said Vinson. “You look at that plus setting them up. It can be in the millions.”

Wylie ISD said students will notice some changes like boarded up windows on Wednesday, but for the most part everything should be operational.