Fairfield ISD board of trustees continues to deal with COVID-19 issues, and at their Monday meeting they set a plan for this year’s commencement ceremony and alerted school board members to the possibility of a school calendar change.
Superintendent Dr. Jason Adams said that a lot of schools are putting out information regarding their 2020-2021 school calendar, indicating alternating attendance and remote learning days for certain grades, and added that Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath last week brought up the possibility of changing school calendars in case of another COVID-19 flare-up that required students to stay at home, mainly by adding more days to the calendar for emergency situations.
“There’s a lot of different scenarios out there from a calendar standpoint,’ he said. “We want to make the decision on what’s best for us, but just know that we could be bringing some calendar adaptations to you that you need to put in place.”
Those adaptations could include adding days by starting earlier, building in longer and more frequent breaks during the school year that could be used as make-up days if needed, or “backloading” the school calendar so that more days could be added at the end.
“So I guess the main thing is, where do we go from here and what happens next? There’s still a lot of stuff out there right now that we really don’t have answers to,” Dr. Adams said. “There’s a lot of speculation out there as far as what the beginning of next school year will look like. This is going to continue.”
Graduation ceremony plans were discussed and approved, with a socially-distant, outdoor commencement approved by trustees for Friday, May 29.
“Last week, the Governor came out and said we can have an outdoor ceremony,” Dr. Adams told the board. “It will be an outdoor ceremony, but it will be far from normal.”
The superintendent said the ceremony will be held on the football field, with students sitting in chairs on the turf starting at the goal line facing the concession stand, extending all the way to the opposite 40-yard line.
“They will be more than 6 feet away from each other,” he stressed.
Spectators will sit in the bleachers on both the home and visitor side, also at least 6 feet apart, on marked spots.
The available space allows for each of the 127 graduates to have tickets each for guests to attend the ceremony.
“We went down there and counted and counted and recounted and measured just to make sure of our capacity,” Dr. Adams said.
Guests and graduates must all follow social-distancing guidelines during the event, and will be monitored by staff, Dr. Adams said.
“We will have school personnel and administrators in the bleachers and will have a total of 12 police officers at the ceremony” to help, he said.
Attendees will be screened at the gate.
A live feed will also be available so anyone who wishes can watch it remotely.
Other business conducted by the board includes:
-A unanimous decision to extend Service Solutions janitorial contract for next year.
-Tabled action on asbestos remediation and mold abatement at the Navarro property.
-Approved purchase of new tile in the maroon hall of the elementary school.
-Approved new English, Language Arts and Reading textbook adoption for FHS.
-Approved purchase of new teacher computers.
Dr. Adams also pointed out that around 300 tech devices have been handed out to students during this time of remote instruction.
“Teachers and our kids have done a great job in this process in playing the hand that we have been dealt. I couldn’t be more proud of our teachers’ efforts and our kids’ efforts to adapt and make changes on the fly,” he said