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North Hopkins ISD Superintendent Dr. Darin Jolly discussed online instruction guidelines released by the TEA at the regular board meeting Thursday. Staff photo by Todd Kleiboer
Board passes resolution on senior class funds
To clear any possible confusion, North Hopkins ISD Superintendent Dr. Darin Jolly addressed the Texas Education Agency’s remote instruction guidelines at the school board meeting Thursday.
“TEA is now talking about the future,” Jolly said. “We can’t allow this public health crisis to become a general education crisis. We don’t want to lose learning because we have had so much inconsistency and uncertainty.”
ONLINE INSTRUCTION
There are two options suggested for online instruction: asynchronous and synchronous. Asynchronous instruction refers to videos or worksheets and is “instruction that does not require having the instructor and student engaged at the same time,” according to TEA draft documents released June 23.
“[This] would be if students didn’t have any kind of connectivity,” Jolly said. “We would have to have an online course that they could take that would be parallel to the class.”
Synchronous instruction entails the student livestreams their classes through applications like Zoom or Google Meet, and draft documents described it as “two-way, real time/ live, virtual instruction between teachers and students.”
“This is not what we had in the spring with our distance learning,” Jolly said.
There is a third option in which the district builds an entirely online school program as a part of the Texas Virtual School Network (TXVSN) which was established in 2007. Seven districts in the state currently offer a virtual academy, according to the TXVSN website.
“That’s a goal of our principals and myself as we start to talk to our teachers to see what we need to do on this,” Jolly said. “We know we have a great inclass model, but we want to be able to reach our students in any way we can.”
Jolly expressed concerns with asynchronous instruction and how it measures engagement. Engagement will determine attendance, and attendance numbers translate into funding.
“Engagement is hard to measure every single day in the classroom,” Jolly said. “Then you add the Zoom factor and all of the other factors.”
Board president David James worried about sudden closures and asked what would happen if the district closed completely.
“That’s when we would go back to Google Classroom [instructional program]. We would all be asynchronous at that point,” Jolly said. “It’s easier if it’s all asynchronous.”
According to Jolly, the TEA has not addressed in-person instruction yet.
“Hopefully we can get students to come back,” Jolly said. “I think parents are ready for their kids to be at school.”
OTHER BUSINESS
To provide the graduating class of 2020 an opportunity for one last celebration, the board passed a resolution instating a three-year period for the class officers to decide on a use for their class funds. “This is basically put
“This is basically putting a three-year stall on the decision,” Jolly said. “It keeps that money protected for now instead of being rolled in [to the next senior class’s fund].”
Activities will have to be supervised by the district.
Jolly was authorized by the board to apply for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) grant to help with expenses related to COVID-19. Business manager Jan Vaughn said TEA will likely deduct 95% of the $93,000 grant from state funding, effectively giving the district only $4,600 in relief.
“But if we don’t apply for this $93,000, we’re just going to lose $93,000,” Vaughn said.
The board approved payments for their replacement sewage system and new fire alarm system. Each project is $102,000.