Wildcat Family,
Last week proved successful on many levels, and is in direct correlation to your support and the efforts of our staff and students. We welcomed everyone back with a virtual convocation and vendor fair on August 18. Below is a video of the presentation that I shared with staff that celebrates our success and sets our direction for the 2021 - 2022 school year.
Further, I’ve had a chance to personally travel to each campus and attend extracurricular events. In doing so, I’ve seen engaged students, well -prepared staff and excited families.
Along with those highlights, the first week of school comes with customary challenges that eventually normalize. These challenges include synchronizing transportation arrival and dismissal times, establishing routines, powering up technological systems and managing time between prep and delivery of services - all very normal dealings. Our transportation department has made some adjustments that have been deployed this week. In short, these adjustments will add more busses to the beginning of dismissal routes, which will have less dense routes per bus and reduce travel times. Teachers and campus admin are implementing routines and procedures and those will most likely become institutionalized by end of the week. I always remind our staff that the quickest way to implement said procedures is to focus on building relationships with those you serve.On the technology front, we are still awaiting some devices due to COVID-related shipping issues (ports that are completely closed in various countries) which affect many of our vendors. However, we have deployed contingency plans in anticipation of these delays.
Lastly, I want to address the safety protocols and discuss the results of last week. From August 23-27 we had a total lab confirmed positive case count of two students and 12 staff members (PCR tested). This is lower than last year’s first week of school and due to the diligence of our students and staff following TISD Safety Protocols.
Probable case counts (rapid tests) from the first week yielded three student cases and eight staff cases. Both sets of results generate mass campus and family notifications to keep everyone informed. However, only PCR tests will be reflected in the TISD dashboards because these are the only tests approved and accepted by TEA and the Bell County Health Department reporting standards to the state. This is no different than last year. I realize there are 1-2 districts adding other tests to their case counts, such as home tests, albeit not lab confirmed. TISD will not drift from our health department by adding unnecessary, unconfirmed data. Our community and staff are already conditioned to meet the requirements of our local and state health reporting standards, and won’t be confused by inconsistent additives.
Today TISD will launch our campus dashboards on our website. These are no longer hosted by the Bell County Health Department. In an effort to remain transparent, we will host our own campus dashboards.
In closing, I want to thank each of you for your support. We have seen this movie before, and had a successful year last year; therefore, I have no reason to believe that a repeat of our successes is not in order.
Lastly, on August 16, our Board of Trustees called a bond election to be considered by our community this fall. Our goal throughout the bond process has been to be transparent, inclusive and professional. I encourage you to look through all of the resources on our bond website (link below) that outline the process and provide more detail about how the proposed package came to be.
I am truly grateful for each of you and look forward to your continued support.
Bobby Ott
