SAN ANTONIO – Northside ISD and North East ISD will delay holding in-person instruction for students at the start of the new school year. Instead, both school districts will utilize distance learning for students in an effort to stay safe and limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The announcement came Thursday, July 16, and both districts said they will hold distance learning for students during the first several weeks of the school year.
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Northside ISD will begin its 2020-2021 school year Monday, Aug. 24 with distance learning. According to school district officials, there will be no in-person instruction until at least the Tuesday after Labor Day, which is Sept. 8.
“After weeks of listening to teachers, parents and school leaders we have made the decision to begin the year in distance learning,” Superintendent Dr. Brian Woods said in a statement. “Our plan meets TEA guidelines released last week, though we remain hopeful that the state will allow local school districts to make decisions based on the health conditions in their own communities. We will continue to develop protocols for a return to school buildings and in-person instruction as soon as it is safe to do so. We know that in-person instruction is the best environment for most students and we will continue to work to provide that safely.”
Students will be given access to devices such as iPads, Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots for remote learning, officials said. The district will also aid families by providing meal distributions.
To learn more about Northside ISD’s reopening plans, click here.
For North East ISD, distance learning will be provided to students at all campuses for a minimum of the first three weeks of the school year, according to district officials.
NEISD’s school year is set to tentatively begin Aug. 17.
“We took the feedback from parents, students and teachers from the spring and have created a distance learning program that is robust and provides real-time instruction from our certified teachers. This will not be what your child and you experienced this past spring. We provided additional training to teachers, beginning in May, to improve our quality of instruction through distance learning,” the district said in a statement.
The school district said it will also offer assistance to families that may not have devices or internet for their children to use for distance learning. A survey will be sent to families to determine their needs via email, according to officials.
The school buildings will be open for essential services, such as meal pick up, student registration, etc., according to NEISD.
To learn more about NEISD’s reopening plan, click here.
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