Navarro ISD students return to face to face instruction

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Geronimo) — The Navarro ISD will be pushing through these final months of school with students all back in the classroom.

After it’s return from Spring Break, the school district ended its remote learning option for students. That’s according to Lacey Gosch, the chief academic officer for the Navarro ISD.

“Our remote learning ended based on the decision of the school board and superintendent for remote learning of choice. Now, we are continuing remote learning in other situations so for example, if you were exposed and need to quarantine, you could go to remote learning for your quarantine period and then would be expected to return back to school. If you were in fact infected with COVID and you needed to stay home due to the illness, you could attend remotely during your recovery time if you were able or well enough to do so and then you would return back to school after you were cleared to return based on all of the state protocols,” said Gosch.

Gosch says although students have returned to the classroom, safety remains key for the district.

“So, we have left all state protocols in order according to the TEA rules as far as cleanliness, as far as our regular cleaning, as far as our masks protocols and all of those pieces are still in place,” said Gosch.

As for those students with medical needs, Gosch says nothing has changed in the district’s ability to address their needs.

“For those students who may have a medical reason to not return to school, we are offering our remote homebound instruction which truthfully here in Navarro, we have always had the ability to provide the same type of remote learning that we’ve been providing all year long based on a medical need where kids can log in and attend just the way they have all year long and so we still have that capability,” said Gosch.

Prior to making the decision, Gosch says the Navarro ISD already had a small percentage of students choosing virtual learning. She says approximately 80 to 90 percent of students were already in the classroom.

Gosch says having the students all back on campus was always the goal.

“As far as instructionally, having students here face to face and being able to provide that real time because even in the remote learning setting, students were still provided equal access to the curriculum, students were still provided with classroom instruction but having that face to face experience, it does provide teachers with additional opportunities to monitor students, to support students and to help fill some of the instructional gaps,” said Gosch.

Gosch says remote learning has no doubt created challenges in student learning and hopes that by being in the classroom, it can facilitate some much needed growth during these last couple of months of school.

“I think as you look across the state when you speak with any school district, the remote learning does create some issues in terms of student progress mainly because you don’t have as much assistance in that area because some of the work is done offline. Some of the work is done when the teacher is not available outside of just the face to face instruction and so the goal obviously is to support students in the best way that we can, fill any instructional gaps that may have occurred due to any loss of school either from when schools were shut down last year or even students who were home this year for any of those instructional areas,” said Gosch.

The decision to do away with virtual learning as a choice was approved by the Navarro ISD Board of Trustees just prior to this month’s Spring Break.

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