SAN ANTONIO – Monday is the start of the school year for 17 districts in and around San Antonio, one of which is Southside ISD.
Many parents and families say their biggest priority is the safety of their students, and with that, comes masks.
“While we cannot mandate masks, we are encouraging and recommending that all faculty and students wear masks because safety and security of our students is the number one priority,” Randy Escamilla, Southside ISD Director of Public Relations said.
There will be temperature checks and there will be contact tracing if there are any positive cases, but the district has an important message.
“If your child does not feel well, please keep them home, and do not send them to school,” Escamilla said.
Southside ISD does have a new and exciting year ahead them, and that includes a push for STEAM learning.
“We want to teach our students about coding, but it’s not only teaching, we want our students to be able to graduate high school and go right into a career,” Jennifer Snider, STEAM educator at Southside said.
Southside has robots, coding, and even drones.
The district is also offering free meals for Southside students and healthy slushees.
The slushees are 100% fresh fruit with no added sugar that help fulfill the fruit requirements. It is an alternative to the fruits that was offered last year after faculty found a lot of students threw away the food.