Snyder ISD school board members discussed plans for student learning during the next school year and the measures the district will employ due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Superintendent Dr. Eddie Bland warned during Thursday’s meeting that plans could change between now and the start of the school year as the pandemic — and the state’s response to it — change over time.
“This is proposed re-opening plans as we know the world today at 6:04 p.m. on July 9,” Bland said.
Bland said that Snyder Junior High School, which is under the direction of Responsive Educational Solutions, will operate differently from the rest of the district.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Rachael McClain said the district polled teachers and parents of students as to how they would like to see the upcoming school year progress.
“We have most of our faculty and about 1,100 of our parents represented by responses,” she said, noting that the parent response represented about 40 percent of the district’s students.
McClain said that the Texas Education Code requires students to attend 90 percent of school days, with some exceptions, to receive credit. As of now, the requirement remains in force for 2020-21. Due to COVID-19, student attendance may be earned remotely through online instruction.
More than half of parents surveyed said they are okay with their children returning to classrooms as long as additional cleaning and health protocols, including hand washing, are observed.
About 20 percent of parents indicated that they prefer their children engage in online learning from home.
About 94 percent of parents indicated they have access to adequate internet services for remote learning, while about 3 percent indicated they could access the internet through remote hot spots similar to those the district set up last spring and about 3 percent indicated they can’t access internet even with the remote hot spots.
Most parents drew the line at having their children ride buses to school in the fall. Only about 6 percent of parents said they will need their children to ride a bus to get to school. Nearly 70 percent indicated their children are not bus riders to begin with. Another 14 percent indicated that their children normally ride a bus, but they will provide transportation in the fall, and about 11 percent indicated their children will not need transportation because they will attend class online.
While Snyder Junior High School plans to require attendance from all students on the first day of school, Bland said other schools in the district will have a phased start of school this coming year.
“Basically for the first six days of school, each day we’ll have about 1/3 of the students on the campus,” he said. “That means twice. Each group will go twice. Then on Day 7 of school, we hit with 100 percent.”
Bland said that during the phased start, students would take care of housekeeping items such as issuing of technology and becoming acclimated to new educational practices. Students will also take Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests.
“It’s basically an academic measurement,” Bland said. “It comes out and gives an individual report for each student, strengths and weaknesses, and then we will do that again later in the year, and we’re able to measure growth.”
McClain said parents will have the option to send students to school or have them learn remotely in the fall. Parents wishing to change options (i.e. a child is attending remotely and the parent wants them to change and attend in-person classes) will be asked to do so only between grading periods. The restriction doesn’t apply to children required to quarantine due to illness, she said.
Bland said some logistics have yet to be finalized for the upcoming year.
“We’re going to be doing meals, but we’re still working on the logistics of what that will look like and still meet CDC guidelines, but we’re going to provide meals for students,” he said.
“Transportation, we’re still working through the logistics. Prior to COVID, we were transporting close to 1,100 students on buses, and that’s about 40 percent. We’ve had at least about 70 percent of our parents say they’ll be transporting their students. So working through the transportation logistics and issues within the CDC guidelines…we’re still working through that.”
In other business, the school board learned that asbestos abatement at the maintenance building and in the Snyder High School student center will be necessary, and will be presented for approval at the next board meeting.
The board also discussed the difficulties keeping accurate attendance with students split between in-class and at-home learning. Possible solutions to the issue will be presented at the next board meeting.
The board unanimously approved the 2020-21 Code of Conduct, purchase of Bearcade lockdown systems for all campuses at a cost not to exceed $43,000 through a Texas Education Agency Safety and Security Grant, certification of the Texas Elite Gymnastics Academy XCEL Program as meeting the requirements of junior high school physical education and giving Bland the authority to negotiate a contract for occupational therapy and Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP) services.
Although the meeting’s agenda indicated that the board would meeting in closed session; the board opted not to do so.