Reopening Update 7/16

Good afternoon Doss parents and families.  Thank you to everyone that joined this morning’s parent/principal coffee.  If you missed it, I am linking in the recorded video below.

Parent/Principal Virtual Coffee July 16 

Per our conversations today, there is much planning to do as we look to deliver the first three weeks of school virtually. All schools in Travis county (public, private, and charter) are unable to open their doors to any student per the city’s directive.  I assume governor Greg Abbott will allow, if he hasn’t already, local agencies autonomy to reopen schools or keep instruction online based on the number of COVID cases in a particular county.  Whatever the scenario may be, please know I will keep you updated.  You can expect continued updates via Blend/Living Tree and weekly principal coffees on Thursday’s at 10:30.

Parent Blend/Seesaw Support Sessions

• We are proud to offer parents Blend/Seesaw support sessions starting Thursday, July 23.
• Parents will be provided a simple walkthrough of how to use these platforms and ask specific questions in a small group setting.  In addition, we hope to share more information or ‘best practices” about pod learning for parents who are interested.
• We plan to continue these support sessions the following week and in August as well.  As always, more information will be shared soon.

2nd and 3rd District Parent Survey Coming Soon

• 2nd Parent Survey:  Conducted July 20-24
• 3rd Parent Survey:  Conducted just before school begins, more than likely August 10-14.

Park Clean Up

• Mr. Rob Gordon will be communicating to the community soon about supported needed for cleaning up the Doss park.  I will share this information when I have received it.

Living Tree for 2020-2021

• We will continue to use Living Tree for the 2020-2021 school year.
• I will share my messages here and on Blend until the end of August.
• Beginning in September, I will share my campus updates on Blend.

Student Registration

• Families with students NEW or RETURNING to AISD can online register their students.
• Families with students NEW to AISD can request paper packets to be USPS mailed if they are unable to online register.  Requests for paper packets to can be made by campuses/parents/guardians calling the Parent Support Line at 512-414-9187 or emailing registration@austinisd.org.  This includes Prekindergarten.
• In addition to the mail and online options mentioned above, we will have on-site/campus registration days this year for NEW to AISD students. The dates for NEW to AISD are August 3-6. Registration times will be set for 9-11am and 1-3pm each day.  We are currently working on a location.

Austin/Travis County Healthy Streets Initiative

• With direction from Austin City Council (Resolution 20200507-062), the City of Austin is implementing the Healthy Streets Initiative to create places that promote physical and mental health and also provide safe options to access jobs and services.
• Healthy Streets are neighborhood streets with “soft” closures” that limit motor vehicle traffic to residents, their guests and other services, including emergency services, in order to open up street space for people to maintain proper distancing while walking or bicycling. A number of streets are being proposed as Healthy Streets, and can be found here on this map.
• For more information about this initiative, please visit the webpage at www.austintexas.gov/healthystreets.

Telemedicine Update

• When campuses open in August for the fall semester, we will continue to roll out telemedicine in campus health rooms through the district’s partnership with Virtual Care for Families (formerly Virtual Care for Kids). Campus nurses will be facilitating telemedicine, when appropriate, for students whose parents have consented to participate in the program.
• For more information check out the Health Services internal Google site and the AISD Health Services telemedicine webpage.
• Health room telemedicine supplies will be delivered by a member of the Health Services team beginning the week of July 13, 2020.  This could take several weeks, but all campuses will receive their telemedicine supplies by the beginning of August.  Each health room will receive a dedicated iPad to facilitate telemedicine visits, supplies for rapid strep, flu, and COVID-19 testing, fever-reducing medications, general first aid supplies, and more.  All telemedicine supplies will be stocked by Virtual Care for Families at no cost to Austin ISD.

Superintendent Search Update

• The board has narrowed down the search to six candidates.
• The lone finalist will be chosen on Tuesday, July 21.  I assume the name will be shared with the community soon after.

Day Care Options and Pod Learning

• My Friends House Day Care and The Jewish Community Center are both working on plans to offer child care for school aged children as we move into remote learning.  Both have staff that are able to accommodate working families to support  and implement online instruction.  More information about these two programs will be shared soon.
• Several families have reached out to me to request support for “pod” learning in the community.  Pod learning is when several children form the same grade level, or not, come together to conduct virtual learning in person in a small group off campus.
• We are 100% willing to support families with then endeavor to the best of our abilities.
• iKids, Rolinda Lankes, is working to connect families with tutors that can conduct pod learning.  If you are in need of finding someone to facilitate online learning in a pod setting, you can email her at austin@ikidsu.com.

Parent Technology Requests

• Parents should be able to request technology for their children via the AISD cloud.  This may or may not be active at this time, but will as we move closer to August 18.
• Parents of children in Pre-k-2nd grade can also expect to receive technology from AISD soon.  More information will be shared soon.