CORONAVIRUS
HISD summer school classes will remain online.
Houston ISD will not host any in-person classes this summer due to the novel coronavirus pandemic after determining “it was not yet feasible” to bring students and staff together, district officials said Thursday.
The decision means all summer school in the state’s largest district will take place virtually over the next five weeks, when HISD leaders hope 40,000-plus students will continue to interact with teachers online.
State officials have authorized face-to-face classes this summer if students and staff follow extensive health and safety guidelines, but none of the region’s largest districts have announced plans for regular in-person instruction.
“We did explore holding inperson classes for select populations of students during summer school,” HISD officials said in a statement. “However, with the health and safety of students and staff being our top priority, we decided it was not yet feasible to hold any in-person classes.”
Since the early days of the pandemic, which prompted the shutdown of schools in mid-March, education leaders across the state looked to summer school as a potential opportunity to help students who have fallen the furthest behind. As prospects dwindled for an expansion of in-person classes this summer, several local superintendents said they hoped to open buildings to a small percentage of children with the greatest needs, including students receiving special education services.
While Gov. Greg Abbott gave the go-ahead in mid-May to reopen buildings for summer school, the runway for resuming face-to-face classes is proving too short for many districts. Under guidance issued by the Texas Education Agency, districts holding in-person instruction are advised to limit regular classrooms to no more than 11 people, space out desks by 6 feet, conduct temperature checks of students each day and consider having all employees wear face masks, among other changes.
Several Houston-area districts,
including Katy, Alief and Clear Creek ISDs, announced earlier this month that they will stay online for all summer school classes. Aldine ISD officials, who had hoped to reopen buildings on a limited basis in July, confirmed Thursday they will not have any in-person summer school.
Fort Bend ISD officials plan to reopen buildings in July, but only to provide specialized services to students with disabilities.
Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo, who leads the largest employees union in HISD, said conversations with the district’s leadership about face-to-face summer schools were not extensive.
“I think they realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t realistic,” Capo said.
Instead, HISD will offer virtual summer school from June 8 to July 2, with paper packets also available. District officials are sending notices to families of children who are required or strongly advised to attend summer classes. All students at risk of being held back will be enrolled automatically.
HISD enrolled about 50,000 students in summer school last year, roughly 10,000 more than are expected to join this year.
The fate of in-person classes remains unclear headed into the 2020-21 school year. TEA officials have not yet published guidance for reopening buildings in August, and none of the region’s largest districts have definitively announced plans to hold in-person instruction.
“We fully expect to be in-person with our students in the fall, but we’re also preparing and improving our virtual platform,” Cy-Fair ISD Superintendent Mark Henry said in a message to families last week. “And on top of that, we’re preparing if we have to have some students in virtual and some students inperson.”
In Fort Bend ISD, district officials are working to provide an online-only option to students and families concerned about sending their students back into classrooms in the fall, t superintendent Charles Dupre said Wednesday. Fort Bend leaders also are considering other options for students, including a combination of virtual and faceto-face instruction.
Several districts throughout the region are considering whether to begin their school year earlier in August and build in longer breaks that could be used for make-up days resulting from shutdowns caused by COVID-19. To date, none have announced an earlier start date.
Officials in a few local districts, including Humble, Spring Branch and Pearland ISDs, said they will not be changing their calendar. A Clear Creek ISD administrator also said district leaders “do not anticipate” starting earlier, though preliminary discussions are still ongoing.