{"id":270,"date":"2020-07-25T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T00:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cooper-for-all.local\/?p=270"},"modified":"2020-11-15T09:34:52","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T15:34:52","slug":"lubbocks-school-districts-still-moving-forward-with-in-person-classes-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cooper-for-all.local\/news\/lubbocks-school-districts-still-moving-forward-with-in-person-classes-next-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Lubbock\u2019s school districts still moving forward with in-person classes next month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
From: lubbockonline.com<\/a><\/strong> As of now, school districts in Lubbock are moving forward with in-person classes beginning next month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it hasn\u2019t been the case for most policies related to COVID-19, this is a local decision. Prompted by the increasing spread of the coronavirus across the state, the Texas Education Agency issued guidelines allowing school districts to teach remotely for the first four weeks of the 2020-21 school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, school districts can request an additional four weeks, meaning the first eight weeks of the school year could be online only. Classes at Lubbock ISD begin August 17, so they could be taught online until October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state\u2019s more urban districts have already taken advantage of this option. According to the Dallas Morning News, school districts in the cities of Garland, Grand Prairie, Mesquite and Richardson, as well as in Tarrant, Harris and Travis Counties, will begin the year virtual-only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dallas\u2019 school board voted to push back the school year three weeks, telling the Dallas Morning News the district needed additional time to hone its plans for offering virtual-only instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday, LISD Superintendent Dr. Kathy Rollo told the school board they\u2019re moving ahead with the normal schedule. Lubbock-Cooper and Frenship ISDs are also scheduled to begin classes in August. Frenship will begin classes August 17, just like LISD, and Lubbock-Cooper is scheduled to start classes on August 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rollo said school districts in other parts of the state that have been asking for an extension haven\u2019t had summer classes to prepare their new safety measures, which LISD has. She said LISD is ahead of the curve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rollo told the school board the summer program has given the district a chance to practice and refine their safety protocols, including the screening stations, hallway traffic and social distancing in classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe feel really good about what we have in place,\u201d Rollo said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re continuing to perfect those things and make them even better, as we know we\u2019re going to have more students in the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A petition<\/a> asking the school board to delay in-person classes has been gaining some momentum, and as of Saturday, it had received 340 signatures. It\u2019s been signed by parents, teachers and concerned citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Laura Deurmyer, whose son attends Lubbock High School, started the petition along with a group of other mothers. She said they\u2019re concerned, and starting a petition was the only thing they felt they could do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith the statistics right now, with the rate of cases that we have, and the positivity percentage that we have, it just seems like a huge gamble to put hundreds of kids into a building with multiple adults for eight hours a day,\u201d Deurmyer said. \u201cIf you have hundreds of people together in a building, and spread begins, we\u2019ve seen what happens in nursing homes and prisons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deurmyer said she understands school is best taught in person, said she understands that schools want kids back to make sure they\u2019re fed and to make sure they\u2019re learning. Deurmyer said it\u2019s just a big risk when lives are at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deurmyer said schools have the ability to create such a broad outbreak because everyone leaves at the end of the day. She said most people in Lubbock come into contact with a student, or a parent of a student, or a teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deurmyer spoke highly to what the Lubbock school district did by providing meals for pick-up, internet hotspots and online instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said it seems like such a big risk to open up schools, especially when community spread cases reached an all time high in Lubbock this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people left comments on the petition. One signee said parents are agonizing over the decision to send their children back to school. The commenter said it\u2019s a decision parents shouldn\u2019t have to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another warned that with Texas Tech students returning and school districts opening up classrooms next month, Lubbock is headed toward a more severe public health crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Morgan Kirkpatrick teaches at Hutchinson Middle School, and she\u2019s one of the 340 people who\u2019s signed the petition to keep schools closed. She teaches English language and literature for seventh-graders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirkpatrick said every teacher wants to be back in the classrooms with their students, but she said all signs point to the fact that it\u2019s not safe yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want to be back in the classroom when it\u2019s safe for teachers and for students,\u201d Kirkpatrick said. \u201cOur district is doing everything they can, but it\u2019s still a danger. Classrooms weren\u2019t built to be socially distanced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kirkpatrick said cases are ballooning in Lubbock, and she wishes schools would wait until cases at least go down to a manageable level. But she understands the situation the district is in, so her biggest wish is that state lawmakers or the TEA would jump in and delay schools across the state until it\u2019s safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rollo told the school board on Thursday the district has the blessing of the mayor and health director, who could order the school districts to go remote, per the TEA\u2019s guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs of right now we still believe we\u2019re ready to start school August 17,\u201d Rollo said this week. \u201cRight now, (the mayor and health director) are supporting the reopening of our schools with the safety protocols in place, following TEA\u2019s guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the past week, the Lubbock Health Department has been confirming about 100 new cases of COVID-19 a day. On Saturday there were 1,965 active cases of COVID-19 in Lubbock County. July appears to be trending in a better direction after there were some days in the beginning of the month where the health department was announcing close to 200 new cases a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the 5,014 total confirmed cases as of Friday, 161 were in children younger than 10 years old, and 533 were in people ages 10 to 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All the school districts in Texas are allowing students the option to take classes online or in-person for the fall semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of Thursday morning, Rollo said about 4,100 guardians or students have filled out the school district\u2019s survey asking whether or not they\u2019ll take in-person classes. About 32% of respondents have said they\u2019ll be taking classes online, which Rollo said is higher than the district anticipated. However, this is a small sample size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rollo said this is also a higher percentage that school districts are seeing in the more rural areas. She said it appears more students in urban districts are opting to take classes online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By: Matt Dotray<\/p>\n\n\n\n