When Houston campuses finally re-open in 2020-21, at a date very much to-be-determined, the region’s million-plus children will experience a school year unlike any other.

Some students may spend more time in the classroom, arriving weeks earlier than usual or staying later in the day. Others may receive added attention from teachers, counselors and social workers. Many will get lessons typically delivered the prior spring.

“They’re going to have so much work to make up that I don’t know how they’re going to do it,” said Angie Tyler, the grandmother of a high school junior in Aldine ISD. “She’s so used to having her teacher on hand, teaching her math or physics she doesn’t get. Is she going to get to learn what she’s missed?”

Amid enormous uncertainty about the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Houston-area school leaders have started mapping out contingency plans for the upcoming school year, one in which students will arrive with learning gaps and significant health needs.

SCHOOL CLOSURES: Texas campuses will not re-open for the 2019-20 academic year

The plans remain in the earliest stages, highly dependent on when public health officials voice support for re-opening the region’s schools. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that all Texas public and private schools must remain closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, declaring “the team of doctors advising us has determined it would be unsafe to allow students to gather in schools for the foreseeable future.”

For now, most administrators remain focused on meeting students’ immediate needs, such as food and access to technology, as well as improving the quality of online instruction.

At the same time, top Houston-area educators said they must be ready to resume in-person instruction as soon as feasible, with extra attention paid to students who likely fell farthest behind.

“We have to look ahead,” Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said. “We’re looking at instructional time as it relates to programming in the summer, possibly an extended calendar, maybe an extended school day.”

None of the region’s superintendents have suggested wholesale changes in the way students are taught. Rather, multiple district leaders have discussed increasing the amount of time spent in the classroom and adding more mental health support for vulnerable students.

‘Serious conversations’

If buildings can re-open in the coming weeks, Lathan said her district may allow more children to enroll in summer school, which normally runs from early June to early July. Typically, HISD only opens summer school to students at risk of failing to advance grade levels or who need to pass state standardized tests to earn promotion.

In Fort Bend ISD, the region’s fourth-largest district, Superintendent Charles Dupre said district leaders will have “serious conversations” about beginning the 2020-21 school year before the planned Aug. 12 start date. Under one possible scenario, Fort Bend students would spend August catching up on missed instruction from the prior year, then start their new grade-level classes after Labor Day.

Aldine ISD Superintendent LaTonya Goffney, who leads the Houston area’s fifth-largest district, also said her district’s calendar “cannot be August to May.”

It remains unclear, however, whether districts will be allowed to begin the school year earlier than normal.

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Texas law dictates that districts cannot begin the academic year before late August, though many can start in mid-August through a separate law known as “District of Innovation.” Neither law, however, appears to allow for changes to school start dates in the event of a statewide emergency.

“That law currently remains in effect, although there’s some discussion as to whether that will change,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said.

Beyond the academic calendar, districts should be considering several changes to the 2020-21 school experience, said Mike Magee, CEO of the education administration nonprofit Chiefs for Change.

Magee suggested administrators examine any needed changes to the roles and responsibilities of “every adult in the school,” particularly if students arrive with significant physical, emotional and mental health needs. To that end, Magee also recommended schools identify ways to assess students’ health status, beyond the typical reviews done at the beginning of the year.

“We don’t know what social, emotional and psychological shape students are going to return to school in — and we have to know,” Magee said. “There are surveys and assessments available that could be helpful in that regard. But it’s something every district is going to have to figure out and come up with an answer for.”

Logistical hurdles

Magee echoed the Houston-area superintendents’ call for additional classroom instruction time, though added hours will bring logistical hurdles.

Most educators across Texas are employed under contracts that outline the number of days they must work. While teachers cannot collectively bargain in Texas, multiple union groups have said they want educators to receive additional pay if they work more days than normal.

Teachers typically sign contracts over the summer, giving administrators time to craft labor proposals.

Extending the school day could reduce issues surrounding pay — many educators are salaried, leaving more wiggle room for districts to require additional time at work — but complicate other aspects of operations.

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Nikki Cowart, president of the Cy-Fair AFT employees union, said changes to the bell schedule could require significant restructuring of the district’s extensive bus routes. Cy-Fair drivers, some of whom are represented by Cowart’s union, transport about 75,000 students per day.

“If you’re ever looking at switching actual hours that kids need to be in the building, it can sometimes be a domino effect,” Cowart said.

Even if schools re-open in August, the possibility remains for reverting to online learning next school year if a second wave of coronavirus hits the region.

“We’re going to be fully prepared to have online school,” Cy-Fair Superintendent Mark Henry said. “We don’t expect and we’re praying that does not occur, but we certainly need to be prepared for that.”

For Veronica Barreto, the mother of a first-grader in Houston ISD and two high school students in YES Prep Public Schools, the return to in-person classes cannot come fast enough. Barreto said video conferencing software repeatedly freezes on her slow internet service, causing her teenagers to miss live instruction with their teachers.

“Everybody is trying hard, but it’s just not the same,” Barreto said. “They need to be back in school. Even my kids think they do.”

jacob.carpenter@chron.com

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect the time during which Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered Texas schools must remain closed.

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