Friendswood ISD board approves 2020-21 back-to-school plan

The Friendswood ISD board of trustees voted to start school virtually Aug. 26, with in-classroom instruction beginning Aug. 31 after some transitional days.

One of the reasons to move the opening date to Aug. 26 is to give teachers and staff more time to prepare for the upcoming year, Superintendent Thad Roher said at the July 27 board meeting.

“We want to make sure our staff is ready for both virtual learning and safety before the students arrive for this unprecedented year,” Roher said.

The board was presented with two options for the upcoming year, with the school year beginning virtually Aug. 26. In the first option, students who opted for in-class instruction begin on campus Aug. 31 after a week of virtual and transitional classes. In the second, in-person instruction would begin Sept. 8 after a week of virtual and transitional classes.

All trustees present voted for the first option.

“I do fear that if we don’t get started, we will never get started with this semester,” trustee Robert McCabe said. “[The students] miss each other; they miss extracurriculars; they miss their teachers,”

In order to push back the start of the year to Aug. 26, the district will add two minutes to the school day and change the professional learning day Jan. 4 to an instructional day for students.