AISD trustees meet to postpone election until Nov. 3

By Melinda L. Lucas

Taking advantage of the state’s new allowance for virtual public meetings, the Albany ISD board of trustees gathered on Zoom for a special session Monday evening to postpone the May election and to clarify temporary grading guidelines during the ongoing COVID-19 school shutdown.

Earlier in the month, Gov. Greg Abbott took the unprecedented action for a limited time in order to maintain government transparency while reducing face-to-face contact for required public open meetings.

Local school board meetings will continue to be posted as usual, and local residents who wish to “attend” can request to be included in the Zoom link.

“Former board members wouldn’t believe how we’re doing this, or even the reason why we’re having to do this,” commented board president Robert Montgomery.

AISD superintendent Jonathan Scott quipped that he planned to serve “virtual hamburgers” after the meeting.

Election Postponement

In action arbitrated by Gov. Abbott, the board decided unanimously by roll call vote to move the date for the board election, originally scheduled May 2, to Nov. 3, 2020.

“This is not a matter of choice anymore,” said Scott. “It’s a necessity.”

He explained that the candidate filings for the May election will remain valid for the new date and that the filing period would not be re-opened.

Since Nov. 3 is the same date as the General Election, Scott said that the local ballots could possibly be on the same voting machines as the county, state, and national decisions.

“We believe that is the intention (of choosing that date), but those details are still being worked out,” said the superintendent.

The motion was made by Kelly Head, with Joe Tidwell providing a second.

Scott said that the order required signatures from all voting trustees, an action which was also taken electronically.

Grading Adjustments

A bigger portion of Monday’s session was devoted to the explanation of grading guidelines and student expectations in light of pandemic-forced online education.

Temporary recommendations for how class ranking is calculated for all high school students was explained, as well as grading procedures for all other classes.

Details are discussed on an article on page 2 of this issue.

Scott emphasized that with the passing of the recommended resolution, there would be more leniency in grading by teachers, but students are still expected to complete work in order to receive credit.

“We have conveyed to our teachers that this is not a normal situation for anybody, so we don’t expect normal results,” said the superintendent. “We are worried about the psychological effect of all this, and we are encouraging our staff to take that into consideration.”

He also said that local teachers are working hard to make adjustments, and they are hoping to continue doing their job to teach their students.

“At the same time, we acknowledge that this isn’t the type of quality education that we normally deliver, so we shouldn’t expect the same quality of return,” Scott said. “There will no doubt be a gap when we start school next year, and the first two or three weeks of school may look totally different from usual.”

Kelly Head again made the motion, with Cory Brown voicing the second. All board members were in favor of adopting the resolution.