"I like the fact that we are going to be able to give our community ... a choice for our parents next school year: a choice to resume in-person instruction and send your children back to schools, or we're going to be able to provide an online option," he said at the board meeting.
A survey—that will close June 25—is being emailed to parents for their thoughts, Gregorski said. Parents do not have to decide now on the option for their children; this survey is asking for their feelings and perceptions about the options amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need to put those [in-person and remote learning] plans together,” he said. “And then we want to share those plans with our community and say, ‘These are what the models look like when we return instruction in August.’ We've got about two months to get that in place before the kids come."
This choice is available based on Gov. Greg Abbott’s June 18 announcement that Texas public districts can offer this flexibility to parents.
Other updates about the 2020-21 school year Gregorski provided at the meeting and in the video included the following:
- the first day of school will be Aug. 19;
- there are no changes at this time to the 2020-21 instructional calendar; and
- instructional start and end times may change slightly to accommodate new safety schedules such as sanitizing buses between routes.
In the coming weeks, additional information will be provided to parents on how the district will provide in-person and remote learning as KISD receives the survey responses, staff feedback and additional information from the state, Gregorski said.
“We want to be very careful, we want to be strategic as we put out information,” Gregorski said. “The last thing we want to do is put out misinformation or put out information of things that we are not quite able to do, or something we're not able, to deliver or something that does not fall under [Texas Education Agency] guidance.”
