(Seguin) – Now that school has been back in session for a few days, the Seguin Daily News wants to take a closer look at how things are going for the Seguin ISD. Helping to share a few thoughts on the start of this very non-traditional school year is Seguin ISD Superintendent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez. As many are aware, the Seguin ISD was among the last districts in the area to return to learning on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Gutierrez says thanks to months of intense planning and hours spent laying out the protocols in the district’s Blueprint for Back to School, he believes the return to school for the 2020-2021 school year has so far been a good one.
“In fact, I was just meeting with a professor from Texas State as I’m going to be serving as a mentor for a student who is working on their superintendent internship and I was asked about the start of school and I was just sharing that this is my, I believe 15th year as an administrator and it is by far been the smoothest year and I thought last year’s start was pretty smooth but considering that there is so much new and so much change as a result of COVID-19 and there is so much opportunity for chaos because there is so much new and so much different, there has been just little to no hiccups to the start of the year whether its face to face or virtual and I’ve just been really blown away with the level of support, flexibility and patience that we have received from staff, from parents, from people in the community. It has really taken an entire village to make sure that this very unique and interesting start of the year kicked off smoothly,” said Gutierrez.
The risk of having to report COVID-19 cases, of course, is among any district’s top concerns now that students are back in the classroom. He says fortunately for the district, there hasn’t been a surge in cases like what other districts have had to report since opening their doors.
“I would say, and I had the opportunity to be on a Zoom with area superintendents – that ours as of right now is pretty low. When you are talking about 7,000 students, right now, we are at two positive cases. I think every school district is dealing with positive cases, but I’d say more the larger districts are seeing numbers a little higher than ours. I just believe that we if we continue to do our part as a school system and follow our Blueprint guidelines and our families do their part with hand washing, the wearing of masks in public, the social distancing that we can tackle the problem that exist in our community which will ultimately impact the number of cases that we are seeing in our schools,” said Gutierrez.
Looking at the instructional day itself, Gutierrez says things have dramatically improved since the actual first day. He says it appears as though everyone is now getting comfortable with the new routines and expectations for the day.
“The first day started a little slow because we were checking temperatures. We were making sure every kid sanitized their hands coming in. It was just a new system. Parents were dropping off. They couldn’t go walk their little ones to the classroom. So, it did start off a little slow so there was a lot of backup traffic but parents were very patient and I’m very thankful for that and very understanding when they learned that they couldn’t walk their kindergartener to class. I appreciate just how patient people have been especially in neighborhoods where there was a lot of traffic, community members being patient and parents being patient with the slow moving car lines but things are finally moving along and we are getting used to how we are going to operate right now during this pandemic,” said Gutierrez.
Launching a school year during a pandemic has even brought about its own silver lining – a lining that Gutierrez says goes to show that our kids are tougher than we think.
“What was very interesting is that there were very few criers whether pre-k or kindergarten. Usually, there is a lot of crying that is happening and I think one thing that we’ve realize is if parents just let their little ones walk to class on their own or with an adult, they’re going to be just fine. So, I think that there is certainly a silver lining there,” said Gutierrez.
Of course, back to school includes not only those who physically returned to the classroom but those who are participating in remote learning. Gutierrez says with such a smooth start to the school year, he isn’t surprised by the number of remote learners now looking to return to their campus.
“I think that now school has started and parents who opted for remote have seen that it has gone off really well and they have seen that we are following strict protocols, there have been requests to come back to all face to face but we are standing firm on the decision that you cannot change whether it’s face to face or remote or vice versa until a new grading period starts and people have been very understanding. I mean what do have to lose if you ask. We understand people and their needs and there are extenuating circumstances that have come up and only in those very few circumstances have we made a change but that’s only been five percent of the requests and I’m appreciative that people are understanding and they are keeping in mind the fact that that can disrupt a classroom or a teacher’s work so it has gone relatively smoothly,” said Gutierrez.
Now although the district braced itself for potential problems and issues with remote learning, Gutierrez believes the learning curve so far has been rewarding.
“We are all trying to learn this, and our teachers are learning this new system. For example, See Saw at elementary and many secondary teachers’ Google Classroom that weren’t using it in the past, they are learning it. At the same time, our kids are learning it. 
At the same time, our parents are learning it. And so, we are learning together. But I’m just very proud of the progress that we are making. For example, with elementary and See Saw, I think today the latest data shows that there have been 13 or 14,000 posts at the elementary level, so people are utilizing it, our families, our kids, our teachers. This is becoming the new norm and we are getting used to it and we are doing pretty well,” said Gutierrez.
Gutierrez says although protocols are in place to keep everyone safe, the district is still asking that parents stay vigilant and do their part to protect all kids, teachers and staff. He says campuses will also soon see new equipment to help in their efforts to screen kids before entering the building.
“What we are still asking parents and it is outlined in our Blueprint is to look at the checklist of COVID symptoms and make sure that their child does not have those symptoms.
That’s the first line of defense. The second line of defense is our campuses are doing the best they can to check temperatures upon entry. It’s harder when you get into a bigger campus like the high school. But we are checking temperatures at the door especially at our elementary schools. That’s the next line of defense. The next line of defense with buses is they are checking temperatures before the student gets on the bus. We are also installing thermal temperature scanners at each of our schools that have the capacity to scan dozens of students at one time and so those will be placed at the main entry ways of schools as another way to check students and if a student does have a temperature, it will screenshot and send that to that leadership team so they can quickly identify that student and make sure they are not going into a classroom and so the next week or two, we will begin to utilize those,” said Gutierrez.
Again, specifics on the protocols being followed in the Seguin ISD can be found in its Back to School Blueprint available on the main page of its website. Current COVID-19 cases reported in the district can also be found on that main page. The website is available at seguinisd.net.