HARLINGEN — It should have been just another school day.
However, a threatening rumor on social media caused more than 30 percent of Gutierrez Middle School’s 830 students to stay home April 2.
“It was an unsubstantiated threat,” said Julio Cavazos, chief financial officer for the Harlingen school district.
The kids were back in school the next day, but there was still the issue of low attendance. Only 68 percent of the school’s students were in class that day, which meant less funding for the district.
To deal with the problem, the district has submitted a waiver to the Texas Education Agency.
“Anytime there’s a campus that we have a 10 percent variance from attendance the previous year we need board approval to get that waived so TEA won’t count it as an attendance day,” Cavazos said. “The prior year’s attendance was 95 percent.”
Such low attendance at one school could significantly reduce the district’s attendance, he said.
“If we back that out we get to exclude that day and thus our attendance is a little bit higher for that particular six weeks,” he said.
This is a rare occurrence in the district.
