ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s already a school year with more than one “first day.”
In Arlington Independent School District, after six weeks of virtual-only classes, students back to campus Monday.
Superintendent Marcelo Cavazos said that for the next two weeks, students won’t be on campus every day. Instead, Arlington ISD will use a hybrid model.
The model will allow students to be on campus two days a week based on the alphabetical order of their last names, with the remaining students continuing virtual learning and then switching for two other days during the week.
The fifth day is designed as a flex day, according to the district.
“That’s an effort to reduce the number of students in the building at one time,” Cavazos said.
A district video posted to social media this week offered a glimpse of the new COVID-19 procedures ahead of time.
The pivot to in-person comes as the School Reopening Dashboard reads “red” across Tarrant County, which indicates virtual learning only is the preferred model.
Right now, two of five benchmarks are “red," including an increase in the number of people in emergency rooms presenting with coronavirus-like symptoms and the positivity rate once again over 10% countywide.
Vinny Taneja, director of the Tarrant County Public Health Department, says he is “cautiously optimistic” for the in-person learning plan in Arlington ISD.
“This is probably the hardest thing decision-makers are having to struggle with,” Taneja said. Arlington ISD has "been very very cautious in their approach, so we’re liking that. That gives us a lot of comfort.”
Arlington ISD, with nearly 57,000 students, will be the largest district in Tarrant County to begin in-person learning after Fort Worth ISD voted earlier this week to delay the start of in-person learning. That vote will keep all grade levels from being on campus at the same time until Oct. 19.
In Fort Worth ISD, students who are entering a new school building in pre-K, kindergarten, first, sixth and ninth grade will be able to return on Oct. 5, if they chose in-person learning.
Cavazos says the first two weeks will provide the time to see if a process he calls a “counterintuitive environment” — students remaining socially distanced, eating lunch in their classrooms and keeping students in small cohorts or groups — will work.
Arlington ISD started 100% virtual on Aug. 17. Cavazos believes six weeks has provided the opportunity for the county’s second-largest district to be ready to begin in-person learning on Monday.
Cavazos says the next "first day" for the district is planned for Oct. 13 when K-8 students who selected in-person learning will be able to start attending on campus five days a week.
But, like every target date this academic year, Cavazos says it is subject to change based on conditions of the virus in the district and the county.
“As the situation changes and we monitor, we certainly will adjust," Cavazos said.