Students are set to begin reentering school doors on Oct. 5. Schools in the State of Texas will do so in response to a Sept. 17 declaration from Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to loosen some of the restrictions enacted in response to COVID-19.
The district has begun plans to prepare for what schools will look like and be expected to comply with once they reopen.
A school staff member said that students would return in three different phases. This means students will go back gradually.
Phase one will be from Oct. 5 through 16 and is being offered to kids that have no connectivity or some connectivity but not reliable.
Phase two will be from Oct. 19 through the 30th, and they are going to open it up to more kids, for example, a special population.
Phase three will be on Nov. 2, and parents will have a choice between virtual and face-to-face for all students, and all teachers will have to go back.
As we go into the first phase, a few teachers have volunteered to go back and do face to face instruction with students.
¨Basically because I think it would be easier to work with the students so that they don’t like to log into the computer and then leave it there and just have it their listening to it. I was ready to take all my stuff back into the classroom and do my lessons from there,¨ Fred Mungia, schoolteacher, said. ¨They haven’t said anything; they might have the assistants do it, for now, once there are more kids, and they cannot handle them, they will probably call more.¨
Within the first phase, students that have no connection to the internet have the choice to go back to schools. This allows them to use the school’s Wi-Fi to do their work for their classes.
¨I feel that given the current situation that our country is still in, I think that it is still unsafe for kids to go back to school.¨ Alejandra Alonzo, a community member said. ¨Although my family doesn’t have access to the internet; I’m not going to risk putting their lives on the line.¨
Recently Hidalgo County tweeted out on Twitter that the office of Judge Richard F. Cortez suggested that schools should wait until Oct. 25 to open up schools again. This would give county health officials more time to come up with a reopening plan.
