San Marcos CISD Announces Reopening Plan

Terra Rivers | Managing Editor

On Monday, the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Michael Cardona and the administration announced the district’s reopening plan to the board of trustees.

Cardona opened the presentation by saying that the plan, “while not perfect, does allow us to be better prepared to serve our kids.”

San Marcos CISD over the spring semester sent out 575,951 texts and 14,391 emails and made 37,225 calls to parents and staff members during the “at-home learning” period.

According to the district, the 2019-2020 school year closed with 8008 COVID engaged students, but the administration were not able to reach 182 students.

SMCISD has modified the school year to begin on September 8 with all students attending remotely for the first year four weeks of the semester.

Teachers will still report to work according to their contracts in August. Under the modified calendar, the school year will still end on June 3.  

The Texas Education Agency has provided guidance to school districts on how to operate and accommodate the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The agency has provided two models for how districts can handle attendance and instruction during the abnormal circumstances.

San Marcos On-Campus

• Requires all participants to be present
• Attendance
  • Teachers take and post attendance on-campus ADA
• Instruction
  • Bonham Pre-K
  • Elementary
  • Middle School
  • High School

San Marcos Remote Learning

• Does not require all participants to be virtually present at the same time
• Attendance
  • Staff will check daily for student “engagement.” If engaged, they are marked present-remote-asynchronous.
• Instruction
  • 3^rd through 5
    • 3 hours of engagement
  • 6^th through 12^th
    • 4 hours of engagement
  • Instructional minutes are based on each day “engaged” assuming (for secondary) that a student isn’t scheduled to participate in less than a half-days’ worth of courses.

According to the administration, the San Marcos Remote Learning plan is different from the at-home learning plan the district utilized from March until the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

The administration said the remote learning plan “is more strategic with a higher level of rigor,” and students will engage 100 percent in online learning.

For the 2020-2021 Remote Learning, parents and students will be dealing with a single platform, Canvas, to access courses, live lessons and independent work.

Parents will have a step-by-step guide on how to access the platform, course syllabuses, and find login information.

San Marcos CISD said they understand the amount of information being shared at one time could be overwhelming.

To assist, SMCISD administration will host virtual meetings on Tuesday, July 28 at 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 6:00 PM via zoom. More meetings will be added weekly as necessary.

Tutorials on how to use Canvas and access materials are also available for parents through the platform.

Attendance will be taken remotely through the completion of assignments; one assignment and assessments must be completed by 11:59 PM that day for the student to be recorded as present.

Grading guidelines will be identical for students on-campus and online.

Despite the delayed start, the district administration says students will meet their instruction minutes required by the TEA.

Included in the modifications to the calendar is the conversion of several teacher workdays to regular school days.

These dates are Oct. 23, Jan. 5, March 5, and April 5.

Important dates for parents:

• July 28 – Student Survey For 1^st 9 Weeks, Remote Vs. On-Campus Learning will be distributed. The district will host three virtual sessions to answer questions on Remote Vs. On-Campus learning for parents: one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.
• Aug. 4 – Student Survey Closes
• Aug. 17 – Learning model reconsideration form goes live (Remote Vs On Campus)
• Aug. 25 – Deadline for parents to reconsider Remote Vs. On-Campus Learning

Other important dates:

• July 31 – Due date for staff accommodation requests to HR for review
• Mid-Aug. – Staff reports to work with safety precautions in place
• Sept. 8 – First day of school (All students Remote Learning)
• Oct. 5 – Learning model choices go into effect. First day of on-campus learning (subject to extension to Oct. 30)
• Nov. 2 – First day of on-campus learning (subject to potential remote learning extension).

To hear more on SMCISD’s Reopening Plan and get a glimpse of Canvas, check out the full meeting which can be viewed below. (Video will begin at presentation’s beginning.) Or check out the district’s roadmap to reopening on their website. 

“I can tell you that we’re more prepared than we were at the end of last year when we were all caught off guard. and i am quite sure we will do a much better job this year,” Cardona said. “But we will make mistakes, and we ask our community to be patient and pray with us.”

Cardona said after 29 years in education, he has been through three hurricanes and no pandemics until now. 

“We had to start at some point bringing kids back because kids want to be back, and they need to be back,” Cardona continued. 

Parents can view and download the presentation provided to the board here.