Clear Creek ISD is adjusting to distance learning as facilities close due to coronavirus concerns. Bay Area colleges face many of the same challenges as campuses go remote. Schools across the Bay Area are also making decisions about large-scale events like commencement in light of social distancing measures.

This post will be updated continually with new information. For education-related closures and adjustments in late April, visit this page. For updates related to the coronavirus in the Bay Area, click here.

Clear Creek ISD

Bay Area school officials discuss redesigning education post-pandemic

Superintendent Greg Smith said during a May 5 webinar that the district is unsure what school will look like for its 43,000 students in the fall. CCISD is considering a split-schedule system to ensure students will not have to continue distance learning, he said.

Since facilities closed, the district has fed more than 100,000 students across five different campuses through its drive-thru meal program, he added. Smith said CCISD is looking for ways to honor its graduating seniors, who are picking up their caps and gowns this week throughout the district. Commencement ceremonies were rescheduled for the end of July.

Smith views the challenges of the pandemic as an opportunity to reimagine education, he said.

“The challenge is to make it better over time, and that’s what we’re up for,” he said.

Leaders from three other local ISDs and three colleges said at the webinar that the coronavirus pandemic has encouraged them to rethink their approaches to education. For more coverage, click here.

Bay Area colleges, universities

University of Houston—Clear Lake to hold virtual commencement in July

UHCL will hold its commencement ceremony, originally scheduled for May 17, virtually on July 17, according to a news release.

More than 1,200 UHCL Hawks applied to graduate this May, including approximately 775 undergraduate students and more than 400 graduate students, per the release. The virtual ceremony will contain many of the same elements of the face-to-face ceremonies, including student speakers and remarks from university leadership as well as a formal induction into the UHCL Alumni Association.

Graduates will also have the option to participate in the next face-to-face ceremony currently scheduled for December 2020, per the release.

During the week of the regularly scheduled commencement in May, graduates will have the opportunity to participate in other Alumni Association-related events, which will welcome them into the Alumni Association and allow university faculty and staff to celebrate them.

“We realized that we still had a safe and creative way to celebrate our graduates,” said director of alumni engagement Carri Hill in the release. “Over the next couple of weeks, we will contact our graduates with the specific details about activities that should be a completely safe and fun way for the students to show their school pride and celebrate this huge accomplishment.”