ROCKWALL, TX – October 23, 2020 — On Oct. 21, Royse City ISD Superintendent Kevin Worthy and Rockwall ISD Superintendent Dr. John Villarreal gave an update on the state of education in their respective school districts during a Rockwall Chamber partner luncheon at Hidden Creek Events Center. Worthy and Villarreal provided insight into how the school districts have faced the COVID-19 pandemic head-on since closures began happening back in the spring, and their success in navigating the challenges of the pandemic as schools re-opened this fall.
Pivoting into a new normal at Royse City ISD
Worthy said starting in May, new challenges were presented to the district just about every week. How were they going to handle graduation, conduct parent-teacher conference, and other things of that nature? They responded to those challenges by creating an RCISD Task Force which focused on opening schools back up and creating a reasonably safe environment for teachers and kids, while still providing that high level of education they’ve come to expect within the district.
“Rockwall ISD has some rock stars and so does Royse City ISD, and they’ve done so much to pivot and come up with new ways of teaching kids,” Worthy said. “That has just been a real treat to see that transformation take place.”
When school started in Royse City ISD on Aug. 24, the district saw 60 percent of students attend class in person with 40 percent taking classes online. One of the most important initiatives they put in place, Worthy said, was to give parents and students a three-week grace period at that time, to see which learning style they preferred. At the end of that grace period, Worthy said they had a lot of students come back to in person learning. Currently, Royse City ISD is at a 75:25 ratio of students attending in person versus online.
Worthy said that statistic is a little bit misleading, as a majority of the online students are high school students undergoing the hybrid in person-online model of instruction. For grades K-5, he said they have only about 15 percent of kids taking classes online.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have very few cases and close contacts so far,” Worthy said. “We do a really good job with contact tracing. I think that’s a credit to education, training a willingness to establish an expectation, but also the importance of taking everything seriously and being very intentional about what we’re doing.”
Getting back to academic excellence in Rockwall ISD
Meanwhile, Rockwall ISD has around 75 percent of students attending classes in person, and is continuing to offer programs to excel students toward academic excellence. Like their friends in Royse City ISD, the Rockwall school district kept its focus on getting kids back into schools in a reasonably safe environment. Thanks to the hard work of the school district’s leadership team, students are still able to participate in many different academic programs to bolster their learning and prep them for college.
This past week, the district offered a Princeton Review program to students ahead of their scheduled SAT/PSAT exam time. The students learned from an online tutor about the types of questions to expect and how to best prepare for the test. A total of 1,600 students participated in the program, which was priced at $25 per student.
“We have placed a premium on college readiness at Rockwall ISD,” Villarreal said. “We’re really proud of our curriculum team, teachers and principals who provided our students with the opportunity to be a part of our Princeton Review SAT/PSAT Prep classes – all in an effort to provide a great college-ready environment in Rockwall ISD.”
Villarreal said the district has designed a system where students get a premium experience with both in-person and online learning.
“Our College & Career Center continues to thrive and offer programs, whether it be human resources, human development, science, nursing and even dentistry,” Villarreal said.
Villarreal said Rockwall ISD has been impacted by COVID-19, with only four campuses currently without an active COVID case, but that the district has been successful in implementing strategies for stopping the spread of the virus on campuses. Around 250 teachers in the district have had to undergo the 14-day quarantine, not necessarily because they have the virus, but because they may have been in close proximity to an individual with an active case.
“All of that being said, you might not even know that because we continue to have school, and that’s because of our principals putting that puzzle together and the substitute teachers we have supporting us,” Villarreal said. “Our staff works every day receiving calls concerning COVID cases and making sure they react quickly to keep the learning environment reasonably safe.
“From a social and emotional development standpoint, remote learning is difficult. Not seeing the faces of our kids, to be able to see a smile when they need a smile, that has been something we’ve been very sensitive to. Our counselors have been reaching out to kids, especially those in a remote learning environment, and we’ve also had counselors go to the homes of some of our students as we continue to make that a priority. We want to provide kids excellence in their learning while they’re in that environment.”
Story and photos by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News.
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