Storms rolled through Mansfield ISD in the early morning hours on March 29. The damage caused by these storms forced MISD to close the district for the day while repairs were made to campuses.
Not all employees were free from work that day. In fact, many departments put in extra hours in order to make sure classes were ready to resume the following day.
To dealing with power outages and fallen trees, many employees found themselves doing jobs that may not fall in their respective duties.
Mark Williamson, MISD's director of maintenance, and his team were up early assessing and repairing the damage made.
"I had plumbers getting batting cages off backstops. I had electricians helping with the removal of trees," Williamson stated about the flexibility of his staff. "I had carpenters working with the grounds team collect and remove debris. It was all hands on deck."
 |
| The scoreboard at Timberview High School's baseball field was damaged by the storm. |
Dr. Paul Cash, executive director of facilities and operations, was very pleased with the districtwide effort that was made to help these campuses.
"The distribution department rounded up their freezer trucks and arranged pick ups at the five campuses needing assistance," Cash said. "Student nutrition technicians, members of the MISD Energy Team and other district employees were on site to load these trucks in order to maintain quality of the food."
The ultimate goal on any weather-related school dismissal day is to get students back in the classroom as soon as possible. Through the efforts of numerous departments working together, MISD was able to return to class the next day.
"The majority of teachers returned to class the next day with lights on and food being served to students," Cash explained. "Not once during all the work that lead to that did one person make a negative comment about the job that had to be done. They got up and came to work committed to stay as long as they needed to stay in order to get kids back to school."