COVID forces Fort Worth-area schools to mull big changes. Here’s what’s on the table.
After more than two months of virtual school assignments and teaching from home, many parents are ready for the reprieve summer will bring. But the question looms: in a few months, will they have to do it all again?
The novel coronavirus’ outbreak upended the spring semester. What started as extended spring breaks turned into school closures for the rest of the academic year. And it remains to be seen what school will look like in the fall.
Surveys have been sent. Discussions are being had. But details are scarce.
Representatives of many of Tarrant County’s school districts said they’re still in the early phases of developing plans, and need to account for a variety of scenarios.
Some measures being considered include starting the school year earlier with longer breaks built in, staggered schedules and models with a mix of in-person and remote learning.
School officials hope to release details this summer. But the list of factors to consider is long, from anticipating the level of the virus’ spread, how to close achievement gaps that may have widened and ensuring that the health and safety of students and staff is protected no matter what route they take.
School calendar changes
Last week, Fort Worth ISD and Mansfield ISD began surveys to assess the needs of students, parents, teachers and staff, and they plan to use the input to inform their decisions. Northwest ISD has already surveyed its students, and will begin a survey for parents this week.
Fort Worth and Mansfield anticipate concluding the surveys by June 1, and Hope Boyd, a spokeswoman for Mansfield ISD, wrote in an email Wednesday that the district hopes to have more information to parents after July 4.
Clint Bond, a spokesman for Fort Worth ISD, said the district has not set a deadline on when plans will be finalized, and that meetings began Monday on the topic of returning to buildings in-person.
“With all the guidance that needs to be considered and followed we are still working on how school will look, how much it will cost, what will be the possibilities for changes from traditional school years, special populations and a myriad of other topics,” Bond wrote in an email last week.
One of the considerations will be whether to adjust the typical school calendar. In a Texas Education Agency presentation on the topic, the agency noted disruptions are likely and districts will have to plan for a possible resurgence in COVID-19 cases and the need for targeted help for students who may have fallen behind.
The presentation cited research from the Northwest Evaluation Association, or NWEA, a nonprofit organization that develops assessments for students in pre-K through 12th grade, that predicted school closures will result in declines in learning gains, especially in math.
One possibility to build in extra time for targeted remediation, would be an “intersessional,” or year-round, calendar that would include an earlier start and later end date with longer breaks built in throughout the year.
It’s something Fort Worth ISD is asking families and teachers to weigh in on. The traditional calendar would start Aug. 17 and end on May 27, with one week each for Thanksgiving and spring break and two weeks for winter break. Meanwhile, the sample intersessional calendar featured in its survey would move the first day of school up to Aug. 3. A two-week Thanksgiving break, four-week winter break and three-week spring break would push the last day of school to June 17.
Bond stressed that nothing has been finalized, and that dates will be determined, in part, “by the stakeholder survey, discussions with the TEA and the current health climate.”
Some districts have said they don’t think changing the school calendar will be necessary.
“I will tell you now, in Keller ISD, that is not a current conversation that we’re having,” Keller ISD Superintendent Rick Westfall said in an end-of-the-year update on May 15. “We don’t believe that there’s a need to completely blow up next year’s instructional calendar.”
Anthony Tosie, a spokesman for Northwest ISD, wrote in an email Friday that the district doesn’t plan to modify its existing academic calendar.
While changes to Mansfield’s calendar are still being discussed, Boyd, the system spokeswoman, said the district will not adopt an intersessional calendar, as it would not align with the schedules of various extracurricular activities, partnerships with universities to provide students dual credit and internship opportunities.
Not a typical school day
If start dates don’t change, districts are planning for a variety of scenarios that summer may bring.
“It’s May,” Westfall said in his update. “We have not landed yet on exactly what August is going to look like because we don’t know what the summer holds.”
Northwest ISD and Keller ISD recently laid out summaries of their preliminary contingency plans. They range from a normal return to school to a hybrid return that may include staggered schedules and limited days in the classroom.
Depending on the level of the virus’ spread, social distancing measures may still be needed. TEA’s guidance to districts resuming in-person summer school classes includes a long list of considerations: students’ temperatures should be taken daily, no more than 11 people should be in an enclosed area, desks should be 6 feet apart, extracurricular activities like choir or indoor sports should be avoided because of their potential to spread the virus through respiratory droplets and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance for schools echoes some of those recommendations, and also encourages teachers, and particularly older students, to wear face coverings.
If students couldn’t all be on campus at once, Fort Worth ISD’s survey asks teachers whether they would like to see cohorts split between mornings and afternoons, or rotating by days.
In his weekly Facebook Live update on Wednesday, Northwest ISD superintendent Ryder Warren acknowledged that remote learning in its current form would not be a sustainable model for most parents, especially if they have to return to work. But he also stressed it still may be needed in some form, especially if there’s a resurgence in cases.
“You need to plan for that. Everybody does not need to be surprised when we come back in August and we may still be having to do some kind of distance learning for maybe a few of our kids, a percent of our kids, half of our kids — whatever the situation is going to be,” Warren said.
Some districts have been less forthcoming with their plans. Spokeswomen for Arlington ISD, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD and Grapevine-Colleyville ISD said this week that options are being discussed, but declined to share specific details on what is being considered.
Parents’ hopes
Lauren Wirth, whose kids are both in elementary school within Arlington ISD, said she would like to know more about the district’s plans by late June. And while it would be helpful to receive an update from the district, she hasn’t taken the silence to mean they’re not working on it.
“I do trust that districts are going to do what’s best for the kids, because every district wants the kids back in school,” Wirth said.
With four children who range in age from 4 to 13, Maysaa Hamdan is ready for her kids to go back to their classrooms in Mansfield ISD. Her husband is an essential worker, and teaching from home alone most days while balancing work has been tough. But her biggest concern is whether her kids’ will be safe if they return.
Fall and winter already bring the onset of the flu season, and what happens if a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19? Hamdan worries most about her youngest, Adam, who is starting pre-kindergarten in the fall. Will he understand all the rules that might be implemented, like why it’s important not to touch surfaces?
But she also doesn’t want him to fall behind. She knows that his teachers will be best-suited to help him learn English, since her family primarily speaks Arabic at home.
As the outgoing president of Fort Worth ISD’s Special Education PTA, Rodney Wade is also hoping the district delivers on extra support.
Normally, a special education teacher and speech therapist would be available in-person to help his 11-year-old son Nate in the classroom. But holding speech therapy sessions over video hasn’t been the same level of engagement, Wade said.
“All of that changes when they’re remote,” Wade said. “And it really was left up to the parents to do and, I don’t know how to do those things. And it was just really, really difficult.”
And he’s heard from parents who are worried about how medically fragile students will be kept safe, in addition to how students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing will be able to read lips if masks are mandated.
As the district’s plans solidify, Wade is hopeful parents will be involved to address concerns like those.
“Special education has always been a challenge. It’s been really hard to get schools to provide education for every child, and I hope this is an opportunity to rethink some of that,” Wade said. “I really hope we come out of it better than we are.”
This story was originally published May 24, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
