Repost!  Reading articles related to Texas schools for 3 hours each morning always leaves me with an impression of the current trends. For the last few days I have felt that state leaders are“stepping back” from the teleprompters and news conferences related to how we are going to deal with reopening Texas schools. Everybody could see they are bogging down. 

There are areas where you can see the “hot potato’ moving more and more quickly. Who is in charge? The local superintendent is in charge, no doubt and rightly so.

Data collection? We don’t seem to know how many Covid cases there are and where they are. The TEA solicits massive data collection from schools, however, when you add other sources (hospitals, county health authorities, ect.) data collection becomes a complex task that we are not fully prepared to deal with. Every organization is not as prepared as schools to manage such large data projects. Yes, it would be helpful to have data, but it is too late to incorporate more sources for data in this crisis.

I noticed today that schools have developed local protocols to deal with possible issues like students with Covid, teachers with Covid, parents with Covid. In Pflugerville ISD this statement jumped out at me ““One positive case doesn’t mean that a class is quarantined or a campus is quarantined,” said Tamra Spence, communications officer with Pflugerville ISD. “ managing problems but keeping schools open seems to be the heart of the plans while keeping the students safe.

Schools are recognizing that great communication is essential in all cases. When this is all over there will be some lessons learned. Local control is essential. Dr. Scott Muri said local context matters when interpreting COVID-19 case data. “All of our decisions are purely based upon the context in Ector County and that context varies from, you know, the East Texas to West Texas, north and south.” 

That is the way it should be. - js - webmaster@texasisd.com