Keeping kids safe top priority for district

By Lynsi Musselman

Keeping healthy during the school year is not a new concern for families but with COVID-19 worries, precautions are being taken even more seriously than usual.

Albany Independent School district administrators and staff have been hard at work all summer preparing to welcome students back to school in a safe environment.

AISD school nurse Lisa Russell said plans are in the works to help make monitoring of students’ health at two campuses more manageable.

“We will provide an isolation room for any student who presents COVID-19 symptoms, as well as other contagious illnesses during the school day,” Russell said. “The student will receive a mask to put on and then will be taken to the isolation room to be assessed. Of course we ask students to stay home if they have symptoms of illness before the school day begins.”

Russell explained that a Texas Education Agency (TEA) policy states that all parents of students attending a campus be notified if there are COVID-19 symptoms.

“The current public health guidance for AISD administration and teachers is a work in progress until registration is complete,” Russell said. “In the meantime, the district will follow the TEA guidance for students that was published at the end of July.”

The nine-page TEA docment addresses on-campus and virtual instruction and can be found at www.tea.texas.gov/coronavirus.gov.

Russell added that a condensed version will be posted on the district webpage before the start of school.

Currently, TEA has four sets of practices that they believe minimize the likelihood of viral spread.

These include providing notice for parental and public notices, preventing the virus from entering the school, responding to a confirmed case in the school, and mitigating to reduce the likely spread inside the school. 

Part of the health and hygiene practices set out by TEA require schools to attempt to have hand sanitizer or hand washing stations available in every classroom.

Last week, AISD received 50 gallons of hand sanitizer from the state that will be distributed to each classroom, unless a sink is in the room.

Russell said the district is also constantly working on ways to improve communication and make it more open.

For questions regarding school public health guidance, call Russell at Nancy Smith Elementary School at 325-762-3384.