East DFW News

More students are returning to classrooms for the Rockwall Independent School District.

At its Oct. 19 meeting, the Rockwall ISD Board of Trustees was told that 74% of all students across the district will return to in-person (grades pre-K through 8th) or in-person hybrid (grades 9-12) learning for the second grading period, while 26% will learn remotely.

Mary Johnston, the chief academic officer for elementary schools, said as of Oct. 15, 6,564 (76%) students were in classrooms while 2,116 (24%) were learning remotely.

“As a result of more students returning to in-person learning, 35 remote teachers will now transition to the classroom for the second grading period [that began] Oct. 20, leaving 97 teachers dedicated to remote learning,” the school board report read.

Johnston said elementary teachers deserved thanks for their willingness to adapt as adjustments were made to accommodate more students returning to classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also praised the elementary assistant principals who worked over the weekend to schedule the returning students.

Amy Ellis, the chief curriculum and instruction officer, told the board 5,429 (65%) secondary students were learning either in the classroom or through a hybrid program.

At the same time, 2,904 (35%) secondary students were learning remotely.

Ellis said at both Rockwall High School and Rockwall-Heath High School, 61% of parents chose in-person hybrid and 39% chose remote learning for the grading period that runs Oct. 20-Dec. 18.

Ellis praised middle school and high school teachers for providing instruction both in-person and remotely.

Human resources chief officer Mark Speck told the board that approximately 36 teachers and staff members tested positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 6 as the district prepared for the school year. That led to the quarantine of 219 staff members due to exposure.

In order to find enough substitute teachers, the district raised pay for the temporary job.

To help attract and retain substitutes, the administration increased the pay schedule in September. The number of requests for subs has increased 250% from the 2019-20 school year, the board was told.

The district maintains an online tracker to keep parents and community members on COVID-19 cases in the district.

“Per the Texas Education Agency, notification of a lab-positive COVID-19 case will be sent to the staff and families of the affected campus or department,” it states. “Should the number of cases warrant an intermittent closure of a school, a notification will be sent to all district families and staff.”

Kelvin Stroy, chief of student services, told the school board that two nurses were hired at the start of the school year, and an additional two nurses were added in October to conduct contact tracing and perform student and staff screenings before their return to campuses.

“The contact tracing process is quite extensive, with each case requiring several hours of interviews and notifications during the day, at night and on the weekends,” the school board report states. “As cases trend upward, mitigation efforts increase to higher levels. The additional mitigation includes daily temperature checks of all students, teachers, and staff, wearing of masks by grades pre-K-2, increased hand hygiene and the completion of daily self-screening surveys by teachers and staff for a period of time, typically five days, to reduce the number of exposures and positive cases.”

It has been a successful effort at two elementary schools, the board was told.

These efforts have proven successful at two elementary schools during the first grading period. Stroy also told the board that school counselors at all levels are in contact with students and are performing home visits to check on students' social and emotional well being.

Rockwall has made extensive accommodations to deal with the threat of the coronavirus.

Hand sanitizer is available at the entrance to every school and in every classroom. Plexiglass dividers have been installed in classrooms and the cafeteria, while arrows were placed on floors, staircases and in the cafeteria to remind students and staff to practice social distancing.

The cafeteria offers lunches to go but plexiglass dividers were installed and tables moved farther apart to reduce contact.

Elementary students are remaining in their classrooms as much as possible, even eating their lunches there. Classes also are going outside when weather allows.

The district’s after-school program The ROCK, is still held 3-6 p.m. but safety precautions are in place.

The district provided one-time masks as well as reusable masks, both in adult and children’s sizes, face shields for adults, gloves, hand sanitizer, which is available at the entrances to all schools, and touchless thermometers.

Students are required to wear masks aboard school buses and use hand sanitizer when getting on and off. They are asked to sit one to a seat, although siblings are allowed to share a seat.

The district has stepped up cleaning as well, adding custodial staff and doing more work during the day and extensive deep cleaning after classes are over using electrostatic sprayers.

The custodial staff wears gloves and masks at all times.

Rockwall has 19 campuses, including 13 elementary schools, three middle schools, two high schools and one alternative school.

At its October meeting, the school board also was told of an instructional plan for spring 2021.

The district will send a survey to all teachers with specific questions for high school teachers’ readiness for a full week of in-person learning.

The district is discussing offering either in-person education or remote learning, but not a hybrid of the two, for high school students. That is currently the case for the middle schools and elementary schools. If approved it would begin with the third grading period Jan. 6.

The district had 16,400 students for the 2018-19 school year, the latest year for which information is available.