After the unprecedented series of events, that not only Commerce Independent School District (CISD) but others around the state have suffered, the  district was finally able to open operations with the hopes to stay on track. On top of COVID, people  within the community were subjected to even more hardships after a historic winter storm put operations on  pause. People had to go multiple days without running water, sporadic power outages, food scarcity in  local stores, among other things and CISD was also a victim to this. As a result of these actions, CISD was forced to shut down all its campuses, and it wasn’t until recently that the district opened up again. This was due to  Superintendent Charlie Alderman issuing a statement regarding the current state of the district. In a statement, he  instructed that the district finally be able to continue operations, after securing a sufficient amount of food  for its staff and students along with also receiving an influx of water bottles to be distributed among campuses. This  winter storm served as yet another obstacle in this already difficult school year, yet the district continues to stay firm and doesn’t plan on seeing any sort of regressions.  

As difficult as this year has been, one department that has managed to stay engaged and has even excelled is the Commerce High School Band. Last week the CHS Symphonic Band performed at Canton High School  for their annual UIL Concert and Sightreading Contest. The results could not have been any better, as the band  received superior ratings across the entire board to be able to bring some hardware back to the school. Achieving perfect ratings is such a difficult task, which makes this feat even more impressive. Ultimately, this school year has  been an odd one, to say the least and even with abnormal events such as a historic winter storm, the CISD has been able to stay on track and even excel in certain aspects, as seen by the flawless performance by the CHS Band at their UIL competition.