During a Nov. 15 virtual update, Conroe ISD Superintendent Curtis Null said the district will move from COVID-19 safety alert Level 3 to safety alert Level 2 following the return from Thanksgiving break Nov. 29.

“We’ve really found ourselves in a good position now with COVID,” Null said.

According to the district, safety Level 2 allows for an increase in school events and gatherings, such as holiday parties.

“When you go back and [look] into August, it was a difficult time, and we were short staffed in a lot of areas,” Null said. “But today, we are in a much better place.”

As previously reported by Community Impact Newspaper, the district started the school year in COVID-19 safety alert Level 3 and moved to Level 4 after roughly one week of instruction. The district returned to Level 3 in early October.

As of Nov. 12, the district reported a 94% student attendance rate. The district's lowest reported rate was Aug. 27 with 87% of students in attendance.

Null also said the district added an additional quarantine exemption option after a student comes in contact with a COVID-19-positive individual.

According to the district, a student may be exempt from quarantine requirements if the student provides the district with a negative PCR test collected after the date of the last exposure to the positive individual. The student must also remain asymptomatic and cannot have further exposure to the positive individual during the infectious period.

“If we have to ramp up, and I hope we don’t need to, but if we were to see a spike [and] if we needed to ramp back up to Level 3 or Level 4, we could," Null said. "We hope that that won’t happen."

Null said virtual school will be ending in December and will not return for the spring semester.

“We are considering and looking at our options of having virtual school for our next year, [2022-23] school year,” Null said. “None of those decisions have been made yet.”

2022-23 calendar

During the virtual update, Null said the district is accepting public feedback on the development of the district's 2022-23 calendar. Suggestions and comments can be made through an online survey conducted by the district.

Null said the district will aim to have the calendar approved during a January board of trustees meeting.