Schools in flux as cases balloon
Changing rules leave parents confused with classes starting
The night before nearly 200,000 students returned to class from winter break and fewer than 10 days after testing positive for COVID-19, Franklin Bynum’s daughter remained in isolation and he was not clear what Houston ISD expected him or the fifth grader to do.
He opted to heed a doctor’s suggestion to keep her home for 10 days.
The lack of communication from HISD during the time off in which the omicron variant of COVID-19 surged to new levels of contagion in the region struck Bynum as odd, he said, considering the barrage of information he usually receives from the district — recorded phone messages, emails and texts — about other matters, such as an alleged viral threat the day before break.
“I just could not believe that there was no robocall. … What do you do when your kid has COVID?” Bynum said. “You got to blast that information. It was not immediately apparent to me Sunday night.”
Confusion has accompanied many students resuming instruction in Houston-area schools this week amid the latest surge in COVID cases. A review of districts’ safety plans showed many were revised in the days before kids returned to classrooms and remained a patchwork of policies across the region.
At least 11 districts — Aldine, Alief, Alvin, Friendswood, Houston, Klein, Pasadena, Santa Fe, Sheldon and Spring Branch ISDs and Stafford MSD — changed their plans to match new recommendations from federal health officials to isolate infected individuals for five days, instead of the previously suggested 10. It appeared only one district, Channelview ISD, had implemented a mask mandate due to the deluge of cases. Aldine, Spring and Houston ISDs kept their face-covering requirements in place.
Most of the other districts’ stances on masks stayed the same, varying from “highly recommend” to an expectation to “respect the choice of others regarding the wearing of masks.”
A handful of districts said they were awaiting guidance from the Texas Education Agency, which has not updated its public health
guidance since September.
Meanwhile, the omicron variant has infected thousands, including teachers and other employees, prompting a warning in Fort Bend County about expected school bus delays exacerbated by an ongoing driver shortage.
“We know that the COVID-19 pandemic is continuing and we have seen a sharp increase in the number of cases in our staff over the break. Late last week area superintendents and I participated in a conference call with experts from the Houston Medical Center who warned that the omicron variant will likely be widely spread especially in schools during the month of January,” Waller ISD Superintendent Kevin Moran wrote in a Monday message on the district’s site. “We encourage you all to seriously consider all recommendations and make decisions that are in the best interest of your family.”
The extent of omicron’s impact on Texas schools remains unclear as many districts resumed classes on Tuesday or Wednesday and had not yet released attendance numbers for students.
In Alief ISD, 86 percent of students returned to school Tuesday, compared with the average 92 percent attendance during December, the district said.
HISD reported 45,515 student absences Monday, or about a quarter of the district’s population. Things were a little better Tuesday, with 26,259 student absences, a roughly 85 percent attendance rate. District attendance averaged 95 percent during the 2018-19 school year, the latest figures available from the Texas Education Agency.
District figures also showed 301 teachers were absent Monday, 242 Tuesday and 122 Wednesday. There were 758 total employees — including teachers — absent Monday, 527 Tuesday and 321 Wednesday, according to the district. HISD had nearly 30,000 employees as of October 2020.
Anecdotally, some HISD teachers have posted on social media about seeing only a fraction of their students return this week.
Tania Andrews, who teaches high school in the district, said she expected more students to be absent in the coming days considering she received a flurry of emails Tuesday evening from students telling her they were positive or experiencing symptoms. One student was stuck out of the country.
Meanwhile, finals are scheduled for next week.
“I think maybe we should have delayed opening or like restarting for maybe a week or two,” Andrews said. “It is difficult to do what I need to do as a teacher, meaning keep my plans for the final exams in place, while knowing that some students physically can’t be here because they’re either quarantining because they were told to or they’re sick; like there are so many different things going on.”
Andrews also felt the impact on the other side of the equation, as a parent of kids who tested positive over the break. She kept them at home until Wednesday.
“Trying to figure that out, by the way, is a nightmare for parents,” she said. “And then when you add to it: Well am I exposing other kids? I don’t want to expose other kids but I also don’t want my own child to miss out.”
Numerous school districts in the region sent parents letters in recent days encouraging the use of masks, which medical experts have identified as a crucial safety precaution, and asking them to keep sick kids at home.
Of the districts surveyed by the Chronicle, at least seven — Spring Branch, Katy, Sante Fe, Alief, Waller, Sheldon and CypressFairbanks ISDs — said masks were not mandated due to Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning such requirements. That order remains the subject of ongoing litigation.
In a statement this week, TEA said its guidance for districts “reflects scientific and medical guidance.”
“It is reviewed regularly and recalibrated whenever a change in protocols is warranted,” the statement read. “Our focus remains to prioritize the health and safety of all our students, teachers and staff.”
Friendswood ISD Superintendent Thad Roher in a letter to parents wrote that the new wave of cases likely would be shortlived.
“We have continued to keep as many kids in school and activities as we can in front of us, and we will continue into this second semester,” he said.
Bynum, whose daughter got ill, said he understood the operational difficulties presented by the pandemic’s swells as he is a county criminal court judge. While he was able to work remotely, he noted not everyone has that option. He said he felt confident in HISD’s leadership but wished guidance had been clearer.
“If my kid weren’t vaccinated and if she had not gotten it over break, I would certainly be afraid that she would get it going back to school,” he said. “It is super contagious.”