Return to School - Parent Letter - Updated 07/24/2020
Tioga Return to School Update (07/24/2020)
Good Afternoon Tioga Families,
Our Tioga ISD School Board had a workshop last night immediately following their regular monthly meeting. Many different situations and scenarios were discussed regarding the start to our 2020-21 school year. We have all taken into consideration an abundance of information from every angle possible. We do not take this pandemic lightly, particularly when it comes to making the decisions that will drive the education of our students both now, and into their future. We have continually adjusted the details of our plan in regards to how we will return to school in the most appropriate manner possible. We will be finalizing that master plan and getting it to you by the end of this week. The following is a brief description and some important details that we need to inform you of today.
On July 20, 2020 the TISD Board took action to move forward with the following return to school details:
- All students will begin the school year on August 13.
- All students will spend the first 4 weeks of the school year virtually learning from home.
- All 7-12 grade students will continue extracurricular practices and events on our TISD campuses, while also virtually learning at home.
- As of today, we will plan for all students to return for on-campus learning September 14.
Factors that were considered in this decision are:
- The new cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in our North Texas Area.
- The consistency that virtual learning will provide in our educational programming, as compared to the inconsistent nature of stopping and starting in-person learning.
- Tioga ISD's student population is 54% transfer from 9 other districts and therefore, Covid-19 cases have to be analyzed beyond our borders.
- The initial development and establishment of a virtual learning program for all grade levels, in anticipation and preparation of a probable virtual learning environment later in the school year.
- The time constraints and position of prioritizing learners that our staff would face while managing in-person learners simultaneously with at-home/online learners.
- The lack of predicting the possibilities that students will be in-person learning, virtually learning or back and forth between the two when considering class illness, family illness and quarantines of both.
- The constant change of teachers, students would face with TISD assigning staff to virtual learning obligations and then having to move those virtual staff into in-person classrooms when illness or quarantining occurred.
- The current Executive Order No. GA-29 that our Governor has issued relating to the use of face coverings while inside public buildings.
- The benefit of being proactive with planning for our students, versus the repercussions of reactive decision making based on continual, daily change.
Just as we have faced over the last four months as a state and country with what seems to be almost daily change, the details outlined above are also subject to change. In mid-June our full intention was to bring every student back to our campuses for in-person learning and, as you know, the health of our nation and state has severely declined since that point. We acknowledge the inconvenience that online learning presents to many of our families and certainly do not wish to disrupt daily routines. These decisions were made in the best interest of all students given current conditions in our area. Once again, we will be providing you with a more detailed plan in the coming days that will answer many more questions. Just as we told our TISD staff, please remain positive and we will all get through this together.
