Trump to defund schools unless they reopen for on-person instruction

Update on Conroe ISD schools...

Following release of TEA guidelines for next year, Null holds YouTube Live to share details
Texas school districts finally received last week what they have been waiting for all summer: guidance from the TEA regarding what the 2020-2021 school year will look like when it comes to addressing COVID-19. Conroe ISD presented broad details of its plan on its website Friday, but Superintendent Curtis Null took to YouTube Live on Monday to address concerns and explain some of what the district had decided.

The TEA guidelines largely left the planning up to individual districts while creating some boundaries for ISDs to stay within. Districts cannot have hybrid plans for students to attend online instruction some days and in-class instruction for others. They are not required to create an online instruction plan, either, but must have a traditional in-class plan based on a five-days a week school schedule.

More details about both the online instruction plans and the in-class instruction can be found on the district website at www.conroeisd.net/roadmap-to-reopening. During his YouTube Live, Null promised that the webpage would be updated daily and those updates would be marked.

After posting the webpage on Friday with a section to submit questions, Null said the district received over 1,000 emails with questions. The webpage FAQ will be updated with answers to many of those questions, but individual needs will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Null made sure to warn the audience that there was a large caveat to everything he would be sharing.

“Everything that I’m going to tell you tonight can, and probably will, change,” Null said. “We are one month away from our scheduled first day of school. We see how things have changed so rapidly throughout the pandemic.”

District families, Null said, would be receiving an email today with a survey to let the district know if they want their student to attend in-class or online instruction. More of the unknowns still left in the plans for next year will be figured out when schools have a better idea of how many students will be on campus and how many will be doing online instruction.

The district has set a deadline of July 28 to return the email. Null said he understands that many parents may not yet be comfortable answering that question. Students will be able to change their minds about what kind of instruction they want at the nine-week grading mark. This is largely due to the staffing that it will take to host both online and in-class instruction.

Online instruction, Null said, will be about balance. Attendance for online instruction will be taken every single day, and the work cannot be done on the weekend.

“TEA’s rules say that you must be engaged and making progress every single day within the learning management system for your grade level in order to be counted as present,” Null said.

At the same time, the district doesn’t want to overburden online students or keep them in front of a screen all day.

Null warned the community that he will not have the power to close schools if COVID-19 cases are found. Schools can only be closed by Gov. Greg Abbott or by local health departments. Where the district does have flexibility is with the first three weeks of schools, where the TEA is allowing districts to choose how best to ramp up and integrate their plans for the year. Null said the district hopes to have more details about CISD’s plans for the first three weeks ready to announce within the next 10 days.

Districts must enforce the governor’s mask order and the proper use of PPE will be an important aspect of keeping schools open, Null said.

The guidance from TEA for teachers was minimal. They are expected to meet the demands of their contracts while facing the possibility of COVID-19 in the classroom. They’re scared, Null said.

“I think that you can appreciate that as parents, right?” Null said. “Our teachers are scared not only for their own health. They’re scared for the health of their children, they’re scared for the health of their families and it’s a concern. While our parents are going to get a choice to come online or come face-to-face, our employees — we are not getting that choice. It is a choice that has been made for us. So we will come to work. That is a lot for our employees right now to appreciate and work through.”

Teachers and staff are also members of the community, Null said. They want their students back in the class. They know the benefits of in-class instruction, but they must also measure that with the health and safety of their families and themselves.

Following procedures like social distancing and wearing personal protective equipment will be an important part of protecting teachers and staff, without which there will be no school. He encouraged families to find the best face coverings for themselves. Individuals in close contact with someone who is found to be positive with COVID-19 will have to quarantine. Wearing a mask will help prevent being quarantined. Those quarantine days will be covered by the district, not the teacher.

Positive tests in schools won’t necessitate closing schools. CISD has hired more cleaning crews and plans on misting its campuses every night with a chemical that kills COVID-19.

Currently, the district is operating under the assumption that University Interscholastic League activities will continue, but details about those activities are up to UIL. If UIL activities like football do continue, district facilities will still have to deal with the realities of COVID-19 and that will affect what crowds at those activities look like.
https://www.yourconroenews.com/neig...s-for-next-15405953.php?utm_campaign=hcnfeeds

 

The members of the Trump administration keep repeating the line that children are less likely to get infected by coronavirus, in support of their drive to get the kids back into school.

Now, if cases surge again a month or two after schools reopen, I fully expect them to walk back their previous words.

"We were just following the science and the experts. No one could have realized that the infection rate for children was low because they were staying home so much."

And so on.

 

Just insane that we are waiting till the end of July to have any real sort of plan for schools. Distance learning planning should have started back in May and the governor should have known better than to sacrifice schools opening for bars and restaurants opening in May.

 

wow...

 

Didn't white women still vote for Trump last election?

 

the lack of preparation and foresight is appalling. this administration has stuck their heads in the sand waiting for this to go away, but that's not how this works.

 

In fairness, his point is that if people are enjoying the chaos and using it for their political advantage, then they can kiss his a#%.

 

Coming from the guy going on Hannity to push getting kids back in school so that people can go back to work, which, in theory, will help the economy...which will help Republicans in November...that's rich.

 

I never said he wasn't a hypocrite. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would have him and his ilk kiss their a$% as well.

 

Ask not what if your country can kiss your ass - ask whose ass you can kiss for your country

 

I think this point is being lost.

Abbott was caught on recording saying that he knew reopening would spread COVID.

He also knew he had to shut down schools in March because of COVID.

Yet he decided to advance an aggressive approach to reopening bars, restaurants, etc.

Abbott isn't a dumb man, he knew very well that lots of people indoors, in closed areas were a petri dish for COVID.

He will deny it, but the reality is that he played with fire and now schools reopening in Texas is a real concern.

 

Governors like Abbot, Kemp and DeSantis have hitched their political careers to Trump and don't want to seem to cross him. That's put them into a very uncomfortable position of trying to do what they know is best for their state while trying to appear to be following the lead of Trump. Compare that to other Republican Governors like DeWine and Hogan who have decided that doing what they believe is best for their state is more important than crossing Trump. For that we've seen anti-lockdown protests target both along with Trump going after them on Twitter.

 

It's just nuts how political this has gotten. I don't think Abbott is a Trumper...he's sort of like a Lindsey Graham in that he goes wherever the wind takes him as long as it keeps him elected. The sad thing is that he's walked back his mask edict and is contemplating allowing closures again...and, yet, he's being censured by 8 GOP-led counties in the state because of the mask edict. He basically can't win right now no matter what he does.

But, that's the fault of those that remain with the GOP and aren't Trump-loyalists...that's what the party is now and you either adapt or you get out of the way. The only hope for guys like Abbott after (hopefully) Trump loses, is that the GOP returns to what it was.

 

Where Abbott screwed up is he thought that he could manage the hospital ICU load and could just push and pull the lever, go to the brink of exhausting the hospitals, and just assume he could pull back.

Now he's seeing pretty clearly that it does not work like that, and because of the pure politics he and the Republicans have played along with Trump on along with the delays in infection that make it hard to react in real time, half of the state just refuses to take this seriously, and there's no putting the tooth paste back in the tube. In Texas now, it's either shut down, or massive spread. People will NOT comply in Texas. I know too many people, some of which HAVE OR HAD the virus that still believe this is a hoax by the Democrats. My mother in law being one of them. She can barely walk around her house right now because she has Covid but on facetime earlier just told us that "its a hoax from the media....".... yes... that's my mother in law. My father in law is even worse.

This is why I think unlike many states in the US, Texas is the most vulnerable in regards to school openings. We might be a purple state now officially, but the folks on the right that do live here still are complete nutcase Trumpers who will actively contribute to our schools NOT being safe, and properly enforce rules. I know for a fact at my wife's school the superintendent and at least 2 of the principles are hardcore Trumpers, and the parents of students that make sure they stay in their jobs have more influence than anyone in our city.

This will not go well. We are woefully unprepared for whats about to happen, and I think it'll cause irreparable damage to the 2021 school year, and cause more budget/funding issues for the state.

 

People like Abbott, Cornyn and Cruz are in a tough spot being in Texas.

The state is heading towards being a moderate or democratic state.

However at the same time if you look in the rural areas, the voters are more extreme than they ever have been.

While the rural voters may not be the majority, a Republican running for state office has to win their support and has to ensure their turnout to win.

So as a result they have to cater to Trump and other far out theories.

Long term it is a losing proposition for the Republican party because the cities and suburbs are growing faster than rural Texas..... but for people like Abbott, Cornyn and Cruz; it is a winning strategy until proven otherwise.

 

DeSantis is in a real trick box because in the coming years he is going to be under extreme scrutiny. How he has pushed state employees to handle COVID and reporting causes of death is going to be closely reviewed and there is a very high probability it will get him in some serious trouble.

I would not want to be in his spot. He is relying on extremists to hold onto the governorship with aspirations for a higher office........ yet he has to appease extremists, business interests in Florida (including vacation money), the President..... all while hoping that COVID does not either force his hand to react or is so devastating that he is voted out ans politically destroyed.

 

One thing that really bothered me about Abbott when he opened the states back up was his main reasoning. He kept saying he wanted Texas to be the first state to open up.

So a big reason we are going through this now is because Abbott wanted to jump out to the front and say “Look guys! I did it first!”

Now he says he doesn’t want to close down because people wouldn’t listen to him anyways. Of course they won’t.

 

Again. Tilman Fertitta was on the STRIKE FORCE to reopen. Instead of a committee of only doctors and scientists, we went with a restaurant owner with a subpar college degree (lulz!, got em). The Governor did what the money told him to do.