Fort Bend Independent School District: Sayavedra Sums It Up (9/1/2021)

Press release from Fort Bend Independent School District:

September 01, 2021

Hello again, I’m Acting Superintendent Diana Sayavedra.

We began the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday by recognizing some of our outstanding students and staff.

During this year’s Speech & Debate Association National Tournament, a Clements High School 10th and 11th grader automatically qualified for the 2022 tournament, and we had an Austin High School senior who has been recognized by the National Society of High School Scholars for superior academic achievement.

A big congrats to Fort Bend ISD Athletic Director Dena Scott who received the 2021 Emerging Industry Leader Award from the National Sports Safety and Security Conference & Exhibition. And to Assistant Director of Fine Arts Gene Holkup who received the Texas Choral Excellence Award from the Texas Choral Directors Association.

To see more about our staff and students’ achievements please check out the video on the District’s homepage.

Once again, a number of speakers addressed the Board this week about masks and the District’s legal counsel explained why Fort Bend ISD’s mask mandate could no longer stand. In short, the mandate the Board passed last week stated as long as the requirement was lawful, it would be in effect. Less than a week later, an initial ruling by the Texas Supreme Court made Fort Bend’s mask requirement unlawful. As a result, we are once again strongly urging all students and staff to wear masks so we can all learn and grow together!

Also, at this week’s meeting, the Board approved a resolution providing 10 additional sick leave days for staff members who are required to isolate and/or quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 test or close contact exposure. The Board acknowledged that the additional leave benefit helps to ensure the continuity of the district’s instructional program, protects the health and safety of students and staff, maintains morale, and reduces turnover. The extra days are effective retroactively to July 1, 2021.

I also want to let you know that Monday was the first day of our limited-enrollment Virtual Learning Program. Our team worked hard around-the-clock to stand up that program in just three weeks. Staff worked out schedules and device distributions and supplied resources and materials to our families. I commend everyone for all the effort and time you put in.

I want to bring to your attention that our COVID-19 Dashboard has a few added features. It provides cumulative data on cases since August 11, the first day of school. We added a column for percentages and included local and regional data. The Dashboard updates every night at 10 p.m.

And I want to let you know that our Incident Command System team meets every single day to review local, county and regional data, analyze operations and then examine actions we may have to take to pivot students from in-person learning to remote learning due to COVID-19. We also meet weekly with our medical advisors – all in an effort to do everything we can to strengthen mitigation efforts and create the safest environment we can for students and staff. We thank all of our internal and external partners for working alongside us in this continued effort to keep everyone healthy and safe.

Lastly, we had several other items on our agenda Monday; including the administration sharing a comprehensive, data-filled report on the District and Campus Improvement Plans Monday night, and the Board approved five new members of the School Boundary Oversight Committee to fill vacant positions.

I’m Diana Sayavedra and that Sums it Up.

This press release was produced by Fort Bend Independent School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.