With the first and second UIL virtual meet in the history books District Coordinators, Irma Tijerina, and Abel Zamora describe the begging process and the current actions taking place to improve the authenticity of the 100-year long UIL competitions
“This year has been a roller coaster as for UIL we didn’t think it would happen to begin with,” UIL Coordinator Abel Zamora said
However unlike High and Middle school “ Elementary students haven’t had their first event yet; having young minds that aren’t accustomed to Virtual UIL is something we have to prepare for,” Tijerina said
Yet the uncertainty of this year was still up in the air “We didn’t fully know if we were going to have UIL this School Year after it was confirmed we had continues meeting on how to set up for Virtual Competitions,” Zamora said
“ After the first competition, we wanted to ease the process and bring a competitive spirit in the play; in certain events, we added schools within the LaJoya district to be apart of one Google Meet,” Zamora said
“However, the idea of other districts competing with us isn’t possible at this moment, and the idea of switching virtual platforms risks the safety of students,¨ Zamora said.
Both Zamora and Tijerina devote a lot of thought to what will happen next, both participate in meetings where numerous ideas flow in and out to better the student experience for UIL.
Zamora express the plans moving forward into the 2020-2021 School year “ With the start of the second semester and opening of school, we plan to compete virtually in-home on days of competition, yet safety guidelines still need to be maintained while competing,” Zamora said
“Nothing is set in stone there are changes that we plan to experiment with for upcoming event.” Zamora said
As a reminder to the student “ I want students to know that this is an evolving process. We still have meetings about what should we implement, change and keep to maintain UIL available to everyone,” Zamora
