From: lubbockonline.com
Lubbock-area Superintendents are asking for grace and patience as students returned to school this last week, most in-person and some virtual.
Most students had been out of the classroom since mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic began affecting the Lubbock community. Cases have continued to climb, and since last Saturday, there have been seven new cases confirmed for 0-9 year-olds and 39 for the 10-19 age group.
Returning this week has brought a much-needed sense of normalcy for many.
“I was on campuses every day this week, and it’s good to see kids back in the buildings and lots of happy smiles from students and parents,” said Dr. Kathy Rollo, superintendent of Lubbock ISD.
There have been some hiccups though. According to Rollo, about 30 percent of the district’s students chose virtual learning. This led to more calls than the district’s capacity could answer, but Rollo said those issues have been mostly solved.
“It was just hard putting 8,000 kids into the online platform, but we’ve been able to work through those and get families settled in to the program,” said Rollo.
Lubbock ISD class sizes are about the normal size, though Rollo said teachers have moved extra furniture out of the room to create space. There hasn’t been an issue as far as mask-wearing goes, from parents or students, and that paired with other safety measures makes Rollo confident they won’t need to shutdown when positive cases come up.
“We have no plans to do that,” said Rollo. “We can handle it well by determining who was in close contact [with positive individuals] and isolating those. I’m hopeful we can go through school this year and not have to close, our kids need to be in school.”
On Wednesday, LISD reported several positive COVID-19 cases. According to a statement from LISD, there were confirmed exposures at both Guadalupe and Honey Elementary, and a possible exposure at the newly-opened McCool Academy that was being monitored.
Lubbock ISD, Lubbock-Cooper ISD and Frenship ISD all follow the same procedures when it comes to positive cases. The campuses are notified of an exposure and contact tracing begins immediately, and the school works with the Lubbock Health Department. If someone is in close contact with a COVID-positive individual, they will be notified a second time about needing to quarantine and recommending testing.
There haven’t been confirmed cases for either Frenship ISD or Lubbock-Cooper ISD campuses. Frenship Superintendent Dr. Michelle McCord said they are prepared for when it happens though.
“We know that’s going to happen, we’ve got lots of kiddos and staff,” said McCord. “But we’ve also done lots of planning and coordinating with the Health Department.”
According to McCord, about 15 percent of Frenship students are using the virtual option and some parents are asking to transfer to in-person learning already after seeing how the first week went, a trend that is also happening at Lubbock-Cooper ISD.
As with Lubbock ISD, there have been some issues with virtual and in-person schooling that took some adjusting. McCord said that the drop-off and pick-up procedures at elementary schools are different and they’re asking parents not to get out of their vehicle. The district has ordered additional hotspot devices for families doing virtual learning, which should help alleviate that burden on the families.
“For those families who don’t have reliable internet, don’t worry, we have plenty of hotspots for every virtual learner who needs one,” said McCord.
Like Rollo, McCord said there are no plans currently to close the campuses and go to an all-virtual format.
“We don’t have a threshold, and we’re not going to make a decision in isolation,” said McCord. “Our decisions are based on input from our parents, our community and the health department, but we don’t have a plan to.”
McCord said she was grateful for the grace the parents have shown and for everyone wearing their masks, and that any changes have been made with the intention of keeping the Frenship ISD community safe.
“We’re trying to make the student experience as normal as possible,” said McCord. “But, we have to understand that in order to keep each other and ourselves safe, we have to be able to make these adjustments.”
Lubbock-Cooper schools started on Wednesday and about 16 percent of their 7,200 students were virtual learners. Superintendent Keith Bryant said their district has had students using iPads in the last few years, so the start of the year has gone smoothly so far.
“We’ve had a couple of adjustments to be made along the way like we do every school year, but it’s been very successful,” said Bryant. “Our students were really ready to be back, and parents were excited to have their kids back to some sense of normalcy.”
Faculty and staff have been able to manage the situation well, said Bryant, as they haven’t had any issues with masks and there are smaller class sizes that average about 20 students per room.
Handling the pandemic has been an adjustment for everyone from district administrators to custodians and bus drivers, said Bryant, and they would appreciate grace and patience from parents and the community.
“None of us have ever had school in the midst of a pandemic,” said Bryant. “Our teachers and folks are doing the best they can.”
Bryant emphasized that everyone needs to work together to get through this time, saying, “Who knows what the future holds, but we’re going to do the best we can and keep the kids safe.”