AHISD Letter 08/21/20

August 21, 2020

Dear AHISD Parents,

You are receiving this email because you chose Face-to-Face instruction for your child, and we want to share information about how we will welcome back students to campus starting Tuesday, September 8, 2020.

When we decided to open school for remote-only learning from August 17 to September 7, the community spread of COVID-19 was severe. The situation has improved since then and, as of today, we project that our local and district metrics will allow us to open campuses as planned the week of Labor Day. The COVID-19 situation in our area has improved greatly since mid-July because our entire community has been vigilant in following basic health practices of wearing face covers, practicing social distancing, washing hands frequently, and avoiding unnecessary public congregation. We all must work together to continue our vigilance. Doing so enables our in-person instruction to continue as planned.

We want to open safely and responsibly in a way that promotes and instills confidence in our students, our staff and our families. To do so, we have created AHISD Back to School Health and Safety Guidelines that each campus will follow. In order to successfully implement the many new campus health protocols and logistics, we plan to open in a responsible way to phase-in students onto campuses in manageable groups. The lessened capacity in our classrooms and buildings will provide the environment necessary to teach, monitor and adjust the updated campus procedures to ensure the safety of all.

We acknowledge that this plan requires additional flexibility from our families. Our plan calls for a community commitment to each other to achieve our common goal to open schools successfully and remain open. Our plan prioritizes certain grade levels of students for week one (Sept 8-11) and the remainder of our grade levels for week two (Sept. 14-18). This will ensure that all students who are choosing face-to-face return safely to campus full time by September 21st.

This is definitely a year like no other, one that none of us has experienced before! We created this plan to ensure the successful opening of our campuses, to promote the necessary safety precautions to mitigate the spread of the virus in our schools, and to ultimately help protect our students and our staff from exposure to the virus. We are eager to welcome our students back onto campuses and feel that our phase- in will help us do just that while prioritizing safety for all!

Warmest regards-

Dana

Dr. Dana Bashara
Superintendent

AHISD Phase-In Plan

Phase In Week One (September 8-11)
This is a four-day week due to the Labor Day Holiday. This week will prioritize our youngest learners (PK-3rd grade students). In addition, this week will prioritize the transition year students on our secondary campuses (6th and 9th graders) to provide them with a time of orientation to their new schools.

Grade levels will be divided into two groups by last name alphabetically to attend school face-to-face two days on their campus. Students with the last name A-L will come to campus on Tuesday- Wednesday of this week. Students with last names M-Z will come to campus on Thursday - Friday of this week. On the two days that students are not on campus, they will be provided with directions from their teachers for their remote learning expectations.

*All students in this first phase-in group will attend school face-to-face the entire week of September 14-21.

Phase In Week Two (September 14-21)
This week the remaining grade levels of students (Grade 4-5, 7-8, 10-11-12) will transition to campuses in their smaller groups by last name for two days of this week. On Monday, all of these students will begin their week in their remote platform where they will hear the expectations and work assignments for the two days they will not be on campus.

Similar to week one, grade levels are divided into two groups by last name to attend school face-to-face two days on their campus. Students with the last name A-L will come to campus on Tuesday- Wednesday of this week. Students with last names M-Z will come to campus on Thursday - Friday of this week. Again, on the two days that students are not on campus, they will be provided with directions from their teachers for their remote learning expectations.

*All students in this second phase-in group will attend school face-to-face,every day the week beginning September 21st.

AHISD Phase-In Plan for Face-to-Face
To help our families get a better picture of the plan as a whole, we’ve created the info-graphic and campus specific schedules in an attempt to simplify the two week overview, and to provide the details needed for families to plan.

AHISD Phase-In Plan

Secondary Phase-In Calendar

Elementary Phase-In Calendar

Questions/ Feedback
Each campus principal will be hosting a couple of campus chats next week to address questions that you may have after processing through this plan. Look for the dates / times on the upcoming Monday email. If you have questions/ comments, we ask that you fill out the google form assigned to your child’s home campus to ensure that our team is best prepared to provide answers.

Howard Early Childhood Center

Cambridge Elementary

Woodridge Elementary

Alamo Heights Junior School

Alamo Heights High School

AHISD Letter 08/21/20

Alamo Heights Independent School District