Austin ISD issued the following announcement.
Need to Know: Aug. 6 Meeting
Today, the Austin ISD Board of Trustees will discuss the possibility of revising the first day of school on the current board approved calendar to Sept. 8, 2020. The proposed calendar change would be followed by four weeks of remote learning and an additional four weeks to phase in on-campus learning.
Austin ISD will offer public testimony before the board vote. If you would like to share your thoughts with the board on the proposed change, follow the instructions for providing public testimony at austinisd.org/board/meetings.
Need to Know: Attendance during remote instruction
It’s well-established that attendance has an effect on grades and overall student outcomes. During remote instruction families may not know how AISD is taking attendance, so we wanted to provide the following overview:
- Elementary
- A student engaged in any subject on the day will be marked present for attendance for the day.
- Attendance is not posted for all subjects - just Homeroom.
- Secondary
- A student engaged in any subject on the day will be marked present for attendance for the day in the period that is considered the official attendance period.
- Attendance is also posted for all subjects based on student engagement in that subject.
Austin ISD welcomed 600 new teachers, librarians, instructional coaches and elementary counselors to the district this week as part of the Teacher Induction Program Academy. Throughout the week, attendees received overviews of district initiatives, such as whole child, literacy, and blended and personalized learning, and connected with mentor teachers and campus leaders at their home campus orientation. They attended an equity keynote entitled “Moving Beyond Kindness: Genius, Joy, Justice.” Attendees also participated in the 2020 Personalized Learning Conference, where they received professional development around a variety of topics, including:
- Best practices with AISD communication tools and technology systems.
- Building strong relationships in a virtual environment.
- Creating a positive and equitable classroom culture.
- Using blended and personalized learning.
- And increasing student interaction and engagement.
Get in the Know: Lone Superintendent finalist engagement
The AISD community gathered virtually on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon for the first two of three meetings centered around lone Superintendent finalist Dr. Stephanie Elizalde.
In the meetings, Dr. Elizalde shared her vision for the district and her background. The events were many families’ first opportunity to hear from Dr. Elizalde, who comes to Austin from Dallas ISD, where she served as Chief of Schools.
The first meeting was hosted live on AISD.TV and Facebook. It featured a discussion between Dr. Elizalde and AISD Board of Trustees President Geronimo Rodriguez. The conversation was centered around community-driven questions that were part of the Superintendent interview process.
“I wanted to come to a community that has the same mission and vision that is aligned with me,” said Dr. Elizadale. “AISD school board and the Austin community truly have a reputation for continuing to champion and dedicate themselves to student outcomes."
The meeting Wednesday focused on academics and included questions submitted from participants that were answered by Dr. Elizalde.
“We need to ensure that we have an ongoing conversation and progress monitoring of how our students are doing. We all have to own up to our student's performance because student performance is ultimately a reflection of our performance as an organization,” Dr. Elizadale said. “Once that culture is established, I think we can all work better on improving our practices.”
The final community engagement opportunities are tonight, Aug. 6, at 6 p.m. (Spanish) and 7:30 p.m. (English) and will be streamed on AISD.TV and Facebook. The meetings will focus on leadership, culture and equity.
For more information on the Community Engagement Meetings please visit https://www.austinisd.org/announcements/2020/08/01/engagement-opportunities-dr-elizalde-oportunidades-para-conocer-la-dra.
Click to Know:
The Austin ISD Student Health Advisory Committee was recently updated on our planning for health and safety protocols for when face-to-face learning resumes. These include mask requirements, screenings, cleaning and disinfecting procedures, social distancing practices, and more. View the slide deck.
To further engage with our families about the reopening process, we’ve begun livestreaming interviews between Dr. Cruz and subject-matter experts multiple times per week. The videos are in English and Spanish. You can see the videos on our Facebook and YouTube pages.
We are also posting the interview as an FAQ following the video. You can find those on our Announcements page.
P-EBT deadline has been extended to Aug. 21.
Original source can be found here.
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