Some districts may use Good Friday as makeup day

Youngsters around Tarrant County hustled out to scrape up the best snowmen they could from Wednesday morning’s dusting, as many schools delayed start times by two hours after calling weather days Monday and Tuesday.

But this week’s freedom comes with a price: Fort Worth schools will have makeup days on Good Friday, April 3, and probably end school on June 8 instead of June 5.

“Districts have to build the two makeup days and use them,” said DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency in Austin. “If they go over the two days, they can request a waiver or make up the days at their discretion.

“Building days onto the end of year is one way they can make up the days or use another scheduled holiday, like Good Friday.”

Despite forecasts calling for snow in Tarrant County, many students returned to classes Wednesday after days off Monday and Tuesday because of sleet that made travel treacherous. Fort Worth, Everman and White Settlement started late Wednesday morning, and Crowley took a third weather day.

The dusting of snow arrived later than expected and ended by late Wednesday morning. Reports of 1 inch to 11/2 inches were reported from Stephenville to Meridian. Waxahachie, Hillsboro and some parts of Navarro County near Corsicana got more than 3 inches.

The main bands of snow set up a little father south than expected.

“With a tight, compact storm like this, even 30 miles or one county south can make a huge difference,” WFAA meteorologist Colleen Coyle said.

Temperatures stayed slightly higher at 4,000-5,000 feet above tground, so most of what fell early in the morning came down as rain or sleet. Temperatures on the ground were also a little higher than expected, staying at or above freezing in most areas.

“I keep telling everybody a degree or two makes a huge difference,” Coyle said. “If it had even been a degree or so cooler, we might have seen a winter wonderland around here.”

Either way, kids were happy to be out of school.

In Crowley, 10-year-old Samuel Petty and his 8-year-old brother, William Petty, were outside about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“They are excited about the snow, and they were able to build a snow army,” said their mother, Keli Petty.

Suzanna Burrell of Fort Worth said her family started getting restless by Tuesday. Kalise, 5, missed her kindergarten friends at Riverside Applied Learning.

Other districts are looking at different makeup days.

At Birdville schools, spokesman Mark Thomas said no decision has been made on makeup days. One on Feb. 16 already passed and the next one was planned for Friday, April 3. Grapevine-Colleyville schools also have a makeup day on Good Friday. Their second one is listed for May 22.

At Arlington schools, makeup days are June 4 and 5. But the district is already using June 4 for a weather day taken in early October when severe storms damaged parts of Arlington.

“We will use June 5 for Monday and seek a waiver for today and any other days,” said Leslie Johnston, a spokeswoman for Arlington schools.

There is no cap on the number of waiver days a district can request, Culbertson said. Birdville, Mansfield and Arlington schools all sought waivers during last year’s severe winter weather.

By Wednesday evening, the forecast called for a 30 percent chance of snow Friday morning with lows in the mid-20s, but temperatures could warm up to above freezing in the afternoon, said Mark Fox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

A better chance for snow will come Saturday morning, when the chance is 50 percent and temperatures will again be below freezing, Fox said.

The heavier accumulations are expected to be north of the Metroplex, but the path could change.

Staff writer Monica S. Nagy contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Some districts may use Good Friday as makeup day."