If you are a parent of a student in Texas, please know these things about school reopening: 

*Protect our Students, Educators and All School Staff Personnel 

*TEA is currently requiring that the school building be open to students in the Fall in order to receive funding. TEA is allowing online learning with attendance stipulations, but will not fund school districts if they do not open their schools. Your district did not decide to open schools. The state did. If schools do not open and are not funded, there will be no more teachers or school at all.

*TEA has said that districts cannot make face masks mandatory but they are recommended. That doesn’t mean we don’t believe they should wear them and that we won’t encourage it. We also do not want students in the office for not wearing a face mask. That isn’t a good plan at all. As parents, you can help by being honest with your child about why a mask is important and encouraging them to keep it on at school when 6 feet apart isn’t possible.

*Class offerings are always based on enrollment. If only 3 kids sign up for a specific AP class, the class does not make, because a teacher can not be allocated for only 3 students. That is true with virtual learning as well. Your student is not being “punished” for learning online- those courses may not make enrollment.

*Social distancing is not possible in schools whether you believe that or not. There is not funding for more spaces or more people (and we are in a 35 year low for new teacher availability- so even if we had funding, there are no people to hire). We must do what we can to mitigate spread knowing this. If you don’t want your child in a building where he or she cannot socially distance, keep them home for virtual learning.

*This is a pandemic. This has only been going on for a few months, and TEA only last week gave schools funding guidelines and they STILL have not given guidance on many COVID protocols. 

*If any of this is unacceptable to you, direct your concerns to TEA or Mike Morath. 

*Please Sign This Petition to continue to get our schools funded and push to keep our students', educators' and all school personnels' selves and families safe with 100% online distant learning.