NISD bringing virtual teachers into the classrooms

NISD bringing virtual teachers into the classrooms Main Photo

1 Aug 2019


Navarro ISD is virtually bringing in new teachers from across the country to help instruct their students, without the educators having to step foot on the Geronimo-based campuses.

The district is looking to fill some vacant science positions by working with an Austin-based company that sets up school districts with certified virtual teachers.

The NISD Board of Trustees unanimously voted to purchase services from Proximity Learning for $99,800 through an interlocal agreement with Education Service Center Region during the regular school board meeting Monday night.

“This is our proposed solution to our inability to find a chemistry teacher at this time. Proximity (Learning) will provide Texas certified teachers who will be present via a live feed,” NISD Superintendent Dee Carter said during the meeting. “Students in the classroom will be able to see and interact with the teacher in live time every class period of the day … This is the very best we feel we can pull off to give our kids the very best, what they deserve.”

Proximity Learning was founded out of the “challenge in securing quality teachers and improving student outcomes,” its website said.

The company connects schools to certified teachers from around the country who can teach students from kindergarten to 12th grade that are projected via a live video feed.

“This company got started by offering the most esoteric languages like American Sign Language, Chinese, Mandarin, Russian to schools that had a demand for those languages, but didn’t have the ability to deliver,” Carter said. “They have expanded in the last two or three years. They have a pretty good presence all over the state.”

Carter said NISD isn’t the only district lacking science teachers.

NISD plans to contract the Proximity Learning teachers as the direct instructors for Integrated Physics and Chemistry for three to four days a week while there is a classroom facilitator in the class with the students at all times, Carter said.

“The Proximity teacher would actually be the teacher of record and that teacher of record would plan with our staff, with other teachers on the staff,” she said. “That teacher will use our curriculum and the teacher will use our grading policies and any benchmarks we have in place.”

The teachers also will be made available for parent conferences and it will be the same person from week to week.

“We’ve asked for the same person for each of the classes and to be there all the time,” Carter said. “Most of their people are part-time people so they were not certain they could locate someone who could take on a load of five classes.”

Seguin High School Principal Gary Haas said it’s possible one class period’s teacher is different from another period.

If the district hires a certified teacher to fill the position, they are allowed to cancel the Proximity Learning contract at any time as long as a 30-day notice is given, Carter said.

The services were approved following a motion by Tracy Large and a second by Hank Dietert.

To view the original story from Seguin Gazette, please click here.

Valerie Bustamante is a staff writer for the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail her at valerie.bustamante@seguingazette.com .