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Article snippet: HOUSTON — Kacey Cartwright and his family lost their home during Hurricane Harvey, spent a few difficult nights sheltered at a convention center and are now living in a hotel far from their old neighborhood. So the first day of school here on Monday was a welcome respite. “It takes my mind off of everything that’s going on,” said Kacey, who is 16, a junior at Wheatley High School and a lineman on the football team. Last week, he picked up some donated clothes from the school gym after losing most of his possessions in the storm. “I get to see my friends and go to practice and just escape reality.” On Monday, about 80 percent of the Houston Independent School District’s 287 schools opened after a two-week delay caused by the storm that drenched this region in late August. Most of the other schools are slated to reopen for classes later this month. This district serves about 215,000 students across a vast 312 square miles, and saw an estimated $700 million in costs and damage, including swamped classrooms, soaked drywall and computers that might not work. Still, a remarkably speedy recovery appeared to be underway here on Monday, suggesting that the school system may be able to avoid the extent of upheaval and tumult that teachers and students in New Orleans experienced after Hurricane Katrina. An anticipated exodus of Houston students to public schools in other big cities — Dallas and Austin — has so far not occurred. As of Monday morning, the Dallas Independent S... Link to the full article to read more