Seguin, Navarro plus Marion encourage remote learning
(Seguin) — “Leaning is open!” Those are the words taken straight off the social media page of Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez who posted the message after announcing Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order to keep Texas public school doors closed through the end of the 2019-2020 school year. Much of the same sentiments were also shared by school districts officials in the Navarro and the Marion Independent School Districts.
Despite his decision to soon begin the reopening of businesses throughout the state, Abbott shared that by keeping schools closed, “it prioritized the health and safety of the millions of public school and private school students plus their teachers and administration.”
While some students, educators and parents were not surprised by the Friday afternoon news, others say they still hung onto optimism that classes would at least resume if not for a couple of weeks— weeks that would help tie up all of the loose ends — things such as allowing kids to pack up their desks and say goodbye to teachers and friends.
Gutierrez says learning that the students would not be returning made for an emotionally tough day and expressed his thoughts to the Seguin Daily News.
“My initial response is that it’s devasting as an educator who cares deeply about our students and we want to ensure that they are growing academically and the fact that we are not going to be able to have them in our classrooms everyday is really sad news and I know that I speak for all of the staff in the Seguin ISD, the thousand plus employees in our district. I do, however, have a lot of appreciation for the governor’s actions and I respect his decision. I think it is a wise decision as it is still early in these stages of the coronavirus as the number of cases in the state continue to increase. It is a very safe decision that he has made in his plans to slowly reopen the economy. There is still a lot of questions that I have as a superintendent and I know many questions that the staff and parents have as far as what’s next? What does it mean now for end of year awards? What does it mean now for the library books that my daughter has in her room? What does it mean for graduation? There’s still a lot of questions that are being raised and we are going to be working in the coming days to make sure we develop a plan,” said Gutierrez.
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Gutierrez says his social media message “learning is open” is vital in moving forward. He says the Seguin ISD is proud of all the families who have continued to learn at home. He says the level of engagement between the families and the teachers has been tremendous.
“The governor has announced that schools are closed. It does not mean that the learning has stopped. It does not mean you can’t reach your teacher or your campus principal. We are all still here for you and the learning is going to continue until we announce when the online or distance remote learning will stop. So the schools are closed but it’s so important for parents to know that the learning has to continue so that your students are prepared to advance to the next grade level and it’s also important to know that for the work that is being completed at home, whether it’s through an online platform or utilizing the hard paper packet, students are going to receive credit for the learning so it is important for students to be participating in the learning so they can receive credit,” said Gutierrez.
Navarro ISD Superintendent Dee Carter says she too understands the governor’s position and wasn’t surprised by his latest actions to close the classrooms for the remainder of the school year.
“I’m sad. I’m not surprised at all because given the fact that the virus is still very active, I was having a difficult time seeing how we could even think about putting the number of children in classrooms that we do and make it have a safe environment even in May so I can’t say that I was surprised at all. I was still hopeful that we might get at least a couple of weeks in May to get back and have a little bit of a normal ending to the school year but I think the governor made the right call and so I’m not certainly not in disagreement with his decision. I think it’s the safest thing to do,” said Carter.
Carter says despite what is happening in the world, she is proud of what the Navarro ISD has managed to accomplish over these last few weeks and looks forward to maintaining that momentum through the final day of remote instruction.
“I’m just in complete awe of what our teachers have done. I think, not to brag, but I think that Navarro from what I hear from a lot of superintendents around the state in some of the Zoom meetings with the commissioner and Zoom meetings with the Region 20 superintendents, some of them are still really struggling with providing continuing instruction and our teachers just geared up, made a tremendous paradigm shift and went right to work. They are providing a high level of instruction for our students and I’m very pleased as well that our students and our families are as engaged as they are,” said Carter.
Carter, who will retire at the end of the school year, says the 2019-2020 school year will be a year in her career to remember and is most grateful for helping to lead her Navarro families through this page in history.
Gutierrez says the closure of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic has also definitely been a learning and evolving experience for him personally. He says it has certainly changed his position as superintendent and feels his role has really transformed over the last five to six weeks and has all been rolled into one where he is leading alongside government officials in making sure they are taking precautions to ensure the community is safe and that as a school system, they are working to meet the needs of students beyond just providing them learning platforms.
“We’re having to change day by day based on decisions being made at the state level or local level or things that are not working within a certain part of the school district and people are understanding and not one complaint has come and it certainly means so much to me as the superintendent and I do believe that people in this community really do care about our students, our future, and I appreciate just the outpouring of support,” said Gutierrez.
Marion ISD Superintendent Kelly Lindholm also shares disappointment yet understanding with the governor’s decision. In a written statement, Lindholm says “the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented circumstances for us to navigate. It has forced us to create new solutions and helped us to forge new pathways we would have only imagine just a few short weeks ago.”
District officials like those in Seguin and Navarro also encouraged families to stay tuned for answers to their many questions. They also ask that families in all districts continue to monitor their emails, district websites, social media sites plus media outlets such as the Seguin Daily News for additional information.