(Geronimo) — In exactly three weeks, students in the Navarro ISD will be returning to the classroom. District officials say they have plans in place to make sure that students and staff are safe, and that quality learning is ready to go on that first day of school. Navarro ISD Superintendent Wendi Russell says it has been a challenge getting ready for the new year, but she feels confident in the district’s plans.
“We will start school on Wednesday, Aug. 19th and we are currently doing registration right now for new students, coming in doing live registration and then, we have online registration for returning students and we have asked parents at this point which mode of learning they would like for their students to participate in. They have the choice of face to face learning in the classroom and the other choice is remote learning,” said Russell.
Remote learning is not a new concept for teachers and students in the Navarro ISD. The district conducted online classes for each of its grade levels in the spring, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across the state. Russell says while that option will again be available to students to start the new year, the district will take a slightly different approach when it comes to online learning.
“Now, remote learning will look a lot different than it did last year or earlier this year as far as we are doing synchronist learning where students are live with the teacher during class times and they’ll follow their schedule. They’ll get an actual schedule and follow their schedule and be live with the teacher and so for us, we felt like that was a great learning platform so that students can be actively engaged in learning,” said Russell.
A significant number of children will likely sign up for face-to-face learning, and Russell says they are prepared to handle all those students who return to campus.
That return to the classroom, however, will also come with a number of new health and safety practices that will be put into place across the district.
“As far as face to face learning, we are taking all precautions necessary. Students will be required to wear a mask if it is age appropriate, fourth grade and up, a mask or a face shield and then at our elementary school, we are highly recommending a mask or a face shield and then for the buses, we will be running buses but they will be required to have a mask on to get on the bus, a mask or a face shield, and we are taking temperatures everywhere. To get on the bus, you’ll have your temperature taken and coming into the classroom or coming into the school, they’ll have their temperature taken as well. Everybody will have their temperature taken,” said Russell.
In addition to keeping students safe from the virus, Russell says the district had to make sure that it also had a safety plan for its teachers and other staff members. She says they too will be top priority as they also adhere to new safety measures and protocols of their own. She says it was important to allow the teachers to be heard, and to allow them to be a part of any plan for reopening schools.
“One of the things that we did first, we put together a task force and all teachers were invited to be on the task force. They volunteered to come up, work during the summer to help design what coming back to school will actually look like, giving us lots of food for thought, information to build our plan around. So, it did welcome anyone from staff to have that buy in to participate,” said Russell.
Much like their approach with students, the district is also taking extra steps to make sure that all the necessary screening and cleaning is taking place at each campus. She says they will do everything that they can to keep the virus out of the schools, and to prevent its spread in the community.
“We are taking all precautions for our staff. We are taking temperature checks. We are doing the COVID response questionnaire for all staff, all students. We are cleaning. There will be cleaning supplies in all of the classrooms for the teachers, hand sanitizers, of course. TEA provided us with a lot of our PPE that we will be using. But, we have lots of hand sanitizer. We are working on what the cafeteria will look like, what drop-off, pick-up will look like and teachers all had the opportunity to participate in those decisions,” said Russell.
Russell says parents and students now have about a week to decide what option the student will choose in starting the school year. She says students, who decide to start classes online, will need to commit to that option for at least the first three weeks of school.
“About two weeks before school starts, we will send out a form for parents to formally elect whether or not their student will do remote learning and one of the things that our district has made the decision to do is after the first three weeks, if a parent has elected remote learning and it’s not working, they are not satisfied with it and they want to bring their child back face to face, they can elect to bring their child back face to face after the three week mark for the first six week period. After that, we are allowing students to come from remote back to face to face learning at the end of every grading period. But we knew, with this first roll-out and it’s going to look so different than it did in the spring that parents may choose remote and then may not like it and want to send their child back face to face. So, we are giving them that opportunity to do it at the three-week mark, at the end of the three-week mark and then after that, it’s at the end of every grading period,” said Russell.
There’s a little bit more flexibility for those students who choose to start the year face-to-face. She says there will be more opportunities for those kids to make the switch over to remote learning, if that becomes necessary.
“Students that are face to face, if parents change their mind and they want to go remote, we are allowing them to take them out at any time to do remote learning but to bring them back in for face to face, it would have to be at the end of every grading period. So, we are trying to make sure that we are working with all of our parents and meeting the needs of all of our kids. It’s so important. We are tasked with not only the educational side but also making sure that kids are socially, psychologically and academically taken care of and that’s what our school is trying to do,” said Russell.
Registration for students new to the Navarro ISD is currently underway. Those students can get signed up on the district’s website, www.nisd.us. Information about the bell schedule, transportation and food services can also be found online.
