Cy-Fair ISD begins grading online assignments, provides updates on COVID-19 response plan

Cy-Fair ISD is looking to resume grading for students at all grade levels while improving the online learning experience as the district adjusts to a new normal caused by the spread of COVID-19.

In-person classes have been canceled since March 16, when students and staff were set to return from spring break. Within just over four weeks of Cy-Fair ISD schools being closed to slow COVID-19’s spread, the school district has approved staff to work from home, begun online instructional programs for all grades, and continues providing food to students.

Education moves online: Cy-Fair ISD cancels in-person classes until May 4 per orders of Gov. Greg Abbott

At the end of March, Governor Greg Abbott extended orders restricting group gatherings of more than 10 people through April 30 and extended the closure of Texas schools through May 1. As of April 13, Cy-Fair ISD still planned to restart in-class instruction May 4.

“This is a moment of honesty; I don’t know that that will happen,” Superintendent Mark Henry said during an online board meeting on Monday. “That is so dependent on people at the federal and the state level and even at the county level. Currently you know by law we are not allowed to have school. So, a lot of things will depend on people that are way above my pay grade.”

Cy-Fair ISD posted online learning resources for students and parents the week of March 16. The district’s Learning At Home program was up and running by March 23.

Chief Academic Officer Linda Macias announced during the April 13 remote school board meeting that grading of schoolwork for CFISD students began this week and report cards will be available through the Home Access Center beginning on April 20.

Students in secondary grade levels will not have final exams for the spring of 2020 and all grades will be weighted equally.

Macias said more courses are coming to the online learning system this week for all grade levels, with instructional packets being posted on Sundays rather than Mondays due to comments from parents wanting more time to prepare for the week.

“For the most part our teachers will be using Google Classroom or Seesaw or some other programs in the Google Suite platform,” Macias said. “Some will also be using Zoom. But…our students are having to share a computer many times. So, with the Google Classroom and the other Google suites and Seesaw, the teacher is able to record her lesson and then parents can determine when students can be sharing their computers.”

Across the district, multiple events and processes are being delayed or adjusted. Superintendent Henry said senior proms will be rescheduled for June, subject to any further extensions of social distancing guidelines from President Donald Trump, Governor Greg Abbott and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Graduations for the class of 2020 are still scheduled for May 27 through May 30. However, Henry said alternative dates have been set for the week of July 6 through July 11 if the May graduations must be postponed. If neither group of dates are possible, the district is working on virtual celebrations.

Teachers and support staff throughout the district are working from home while on-site staff include food service, maintenance, custodial staff, transportation staff, payroll and senior staff. Food service staff has served 355,403 meals from March 16 to April 9 through the curbside meal program, Roy Sprague, chief financial officer, said.

More than 237,000 instructional packets for students have been printed over the last four weeks. In the past week, the transportation department delivered 5,000 instructional packets through 264 bus routes to students without access to internet or curbside pickup, Sprague said.

On-site staff participating in curbside meal programs and the distribution of instructional packets are screened for possible coronavirus symptoms daily, said Christiane Bernal, director of health services.

CFISD is also consistently checking in with homeless students.

“We are working with the campuses, the counselors, the social workers to make sure that those students are taken care of,” said Deborah Stewart, chief of employee and student services. “Each of our homeless students has received a phone call and will continue to receive those phone calls to make sure that they are aware of meal pickup sites, computer needs, paper packets, whatever the need is for our homeless students we’re making sure that we meet those.”

Schools and CFISD facilities are constantly being sanitized with hospital-grade equipment, Sprague said. Caution tape has been put on playground equipment, and outdoor basketball rims across the district have been removed to prevent people from attempting to use them.

The school district has an opportunity to get a head start on some maintenance work while facilities are closed, Sprague said.

“In terms of our maintenance department, this is a great opportunity to be able to perform work orders when we don’t have people in the building,” Sprague said. “It allows us to do some of our preventative maintenance work that needs to be done that we normally do in the summer months, but we’ve been able to move that up in schedule and work on cooling towers and other various systems.”

As the school district proceeds with plans for a graduation in May, barring any extensions of social distancing guidelines, Henry said Cy-Fair ISD is working to ensure students can continue moving forward at an uncertain time.

“This is an unprecedented time not only for CFISD, but for our country,” Henry said. “We’ve been busy trying to meet the needs of our students, meet the needs of our staff and provide the best product we can given the unprecedented nature of this event.”

For more information about Cy-Fair ISD’s response plan during COVID-19, visit www.cfisd.net/en/parents-students/health/coronavirus.