Frequently Asked Questions about Emergency Schedules, Face-to-Face and Remote Learning for next week beginning Sept. 8
View the full video
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Superintendent Toscano updates the previous two weeks
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What is the School Opening Protocol and how is it used to determine safety for returning to campus?
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What were the results of the most recent parent choice survey?
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Why are we starting face-to-face with an emergency schedule? Why not just call it a "hybrid" schedule?
Link to watch a larger version of this video
Link to Face-to-Face Emergency Schedule
Why are we starting with the emergency schedule, and why not just call this a hybrid schedule?
We shared with the community that we would create a schedule that essentially did that under a state of emergency at any point throughout the year. At this particular time, because we're ramping up the number of students into our buildings, we felt it appropriate to create and launch that emergency schedule, meaning that there would be a very small percentage of students who would be coming every day. Still, outside of that, every student would be in one of two groups so that no more than half of our student body would be on campus at any one time.
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When will I know my group?
When will I know my group?
Your principals have been wrapping up your emergency schedule groupings this week, and by September 2, every child in the district will know whether they're in Group 1 or Group 2. You'll probably get a phone call from your child's teacher and a principal's letter at the elementary level. You'll also likely have some other correspondence from the campus. At the secondary level, you're probably going to have that information added to your child's schedule under zero hour. You're going to receive mail out correspondence from your campus, and your teachers will communicate through their Google platforms.
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Will the district provide a calendar indicating which group attends face-to-face each day?
Will the district provide a calendar indicating which group attends face-to-face each day?
We've just finalized the calendar that you'll receive with your child's schedule. The yellow bars indicate Group 1, and so if you're in Group 1, you'll be coming to school face-to-face (if you choose to do so) on those days, and on your off days, you'll be attending remotely. If you're in Group 2 on the calendar, those are indicated by the blacked-out days, and on those days, you'll be attending face-to-face if you choose to do so; otherwise, on the alternate off days, you'll be attending remotely. Again all students have the option to be remote exclusively, and at this time, any students that want face-to-face can attend face-to-face on the days that they're scheduled, whether they're in Group 1 or Group 2.
Link to Face-to-Face Emergency Schedule
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I work! I need my child in school every day!
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Link to Face-to-Face Emergency Schedule
What if I need my child in school every day so that I can work?
We know the sense of urgency around this and the difficulty families have with children at home, particularly the younger children. We believe that by launching this schedule, we're not going to have more than about 25 percent of our student body on our campuses, which would allow us to stay within the 10 percent occupancy capacity of our buildings. Once we get past the first week, we intend to confirm how many students stuck with remote and did not come face-to-face even though they had an option to do so. At that point, we'll begin to slowly back in students who want to come face-to-face every day.
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What will safety protocols look like when my child attends face-to-face?
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Link to Strategic Learning & Safe Reentry Plan
What do the safety protocols look like for children attending face to face?
There is a web-based tool for children attending face-to-face that will enable every child to do an online screening that goes to the campus principal. It will send reminders to families to complete the screener, because no student will be allowed to come to school unless it's been completed. The screener will require the students, or their families, to answer a few questions related to any symptoms they've been experiencing and enter their daily temperature.
There will be precise protocols for where students will enter, where they will go, how they will be grouped, and how and when they will get into the classroom. All risk mitigation protocols will be strictly followed, including six-foot distancing, PPE being worn, hand sanitization, and frequent disinfection of high-touch areas. The things that we've been doing since March. The things that our employees have been doing and our teaching staff since they've returned are what our students are going to be doing every day and before they get to school. Buses will be sanitized before students get on the bus. Students will hand sanitize before they get on the bus and wear masks. They'll sit in individual seats with windows down or cracked depending on temperature. They'll be distanced and protected on the buses as well.
We have a very comprehensive reentry protocol for every aspect of running a school and a school district that includes all of our departments and staff.
All students and employees are required to wear a face mask. If a student refuses to wear their mask, they'll, unfortunately, be choosing remote instruction for the year. Still, there are a few exceptions to that in circumstances where children have some health-related conditions. We've found some alternative options to include desk carrels, splash guards, face shields, and different kinds of masks that aren't as irritating or uncomfortable. So far, we've been able to find a solution for every circumstance. Regardless of whether you're concerned about yourself or not, it's the entire school district; it's all of the students and staff in your class and your schools that matter the most and so we want to make sure that as we bring kids in, we keep them in our buildings.
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Can you guarantee that the kids will be 100% safe?
Can you guarantee that the kids will be 100% safe?
You can't. You can only mitigate the risk. There's definitely no 100 percent guarantee. You know we're all looking at the same data. You know we've been looking at the Metro Health dashboard. The metrics tracked in that dashboard are the same metrics recommended by the CDC, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and big epidemiologists and health organizations. We've dug into zip code data as well. If you go to that same dashboard a little further down on the website, you can search and see the number of positive cases by zip code. We have four zip codes here in the East Central community, and those four zip codes have positivity rates of three percent, three percent, one percent, and one percent.
We understand that there are limits to what the data tells us, but we're taking a very conservative approach to ensure to the degree possible that everybody is safe. However, in addition to that, for any parents that are still not certain or uncomfortable with face-to-face learning, you hopefully have seen that we have stood up a very different remote-learning model than what you experienced in the spring. I can only promise you that it's going to get better. If you plan to continue remote learning exclusively, make sure that your child has someone to proctor or assure that they're following their daily schedule and that they're connected, and we'll provide the instruction, we'll provide the support, we'll provide everything your child needs to make academic progress.
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Does my child still attend remotely when they are not scheduled face-to-face?
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What if my child needs tutoring or additional help face-to-face? What does the daily schedule look like beginning next week?
Link to watch a larger version of this video
Link to Face-to-Face Emergency Schedule
What if my child needs tutoring or additional help face to face?
What we have designed into our daily schedules that are very similar to the daily schedules that you've been experiencing up to this point are asynchronous blocks. These are blocks where teachers have time to check in on the students who didn't make it face-to-face or synchronously and pull small groups of students or individual students for some additional tutoring or some extra support.
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What time does my child need to be in school and when does my child get out of school?
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Will there be an after school care option?
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After School Program Information
Will there be an after school care option?
As you can imagine, after school programs have been in disarray due to COVID-19. It's been difficult for them to clarify the expectations for student-teacher ratios, distancing requirements, and how much space they were going to need. We've worked with the City of San Antonio to offer a Challenge program for those elementary schools in San Antonio and Be a Champion for an after-school program for those not in San Antonio. We were able to secure a partnership with the YWCA, who will provide an after-school care option at every one of our elementary schools from the end of the school day until six o'clock. We'll be pushing a flyer out with some information. Again it'll be provided at all seven elementary sites. YWCA is running this program, and so you'll be registering online with the YWCA, and you'll be making payments to the YWCA. We will hire a facilitator from our teaching staff at each campus to help facilitate the program and be the liaison with the campus and between the campus and parents and the YWCA. One of the things that we're happy about is that the price is going to be comparable to Be a Champion, and if we increase participation, then that rate can go all the way down to as low as $60 a month.
Unfortunately, the City of San Antonio has had to cut significant funding from our Challenge program budget, which made that option unavailable to us this year, and so families who had been accustomed to the Challenge program being much more cost-effective than $60 or $95 a month. We're very pleased, though, to be able to offer an after-school program. We intend to start on September 14th. For up to 45 students, the cost is $95 monthly. The September payment of $95 (not prorated) includes a fee for registration and supplies. If we increase to more than 45 students and up to 60 students, it drops to $85 a month, and then you can see down to 100 students. If we get to that point, you'll see that for three hours a day for every day after school it's $60 for the entire month. We believe that that's a great value to our families.
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What time will the buses pick up and drop off?
The buses will have you at the campus by the start of the day, NOT at the 1st period. Buses will also pick up at the end of the day, not at the end of the final period.
For example, at the high school, the buses will have dropped off students by 7:45 a.m. M/W/F and by 7:45 a.m. on T/TH, even though period 1 does not begin until 9 a.m. on M/W/F and period 5 at 9:30 a.m. on T/TH.
Buses will begin to take students home at the end of the day. Again using the high school as an example, the bus would begin to take home students at 4:20 p.m. M-TH, NOT at 1:55 p.m. or 2:45 p.m.
Students and families will need to arrange for transportation if they want to be there in the first period/leave at the day's final period and not stay for the safe learning zones, office hours, tutoring, athletics, extra-curricular activities, and more.
This is only for the secondary levels (middle and high school).
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After Sept. 7 will bell schedules be the same as before?
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After September 7th will the bell schedules be the same as before (high school and middle school levels)? I thought at some point, there was mention that passing periods would be extended, and that would lead to longer days.
One of the strategies for risk mitigation is to reduce the number of passing periods at our secondary campuses. The schedule that we'll be launching and the number of students that will be on campus enable us to do many things during those passing periods, from staggering to controlling the direction that students flow, to keeping students distanced as they travel down the hallways, to making sure they're not congregating or gathering in large groups. So that period of four weeks will teach us a lot about our capacity or threshold for more students beyond that. We have also spread out lunchtime over a more extended period to keep the groups small and safely distanced.
