Spring ISD trustees got a detailed look Thursday night at all of the work that has been going on in the district in the eight weeks since the extended COVID-19 closure.

“We like to say we’ve been closed but open,” said Chief Operations Officer Mark Miranda who walked through some of the key milestones in a presentation at the board’s regularly scheduled work session. “We’ve really been working around the clock to ensure our students and families have the support they need for learning at-home, as well as with meals and technology.”

The in-depth presentation followed Spring ISD Superintendent Dr. Rodney E. Watson’s latest update to the community on Sunday, May 3, when he unveiled the second Project-Based Learning (PBL) plans and highlighted ongoing efforts to keep students engaged with their academic journey so that everyone has a successful end to the 2019-20 school year.

“I want everyone to know how proud I am of all of the hard work to date as students, parents and educators have embraced remote learning through our Project-Based Learning plans,” he said.  “The Spring community has truly made the best of a very challenging situation.”

One of the key data points shared with the trustees on Thursday was that the district has connected with 95 percent of families since the closure began. That outreach has included an average of two contacts per week, through emails, phone calls, google hangouts or other two-way communication tools. 

Since this unprecedented school closure period began:

• 10,577 Chromebooks have been issued to students who need them;
• 405,039 meals have been served to children in the Spring ISD community;
• The Empowered Learning At-Home webpage has gotten more than 461,369 pageviews; 
• More than 3,000 parents have been assisted by the district’s new help desk;
• 41,600 paper packets have been prepared for families who need them; and 
• Some 193,107 assignments have been uploaded to Schoology, the district’s Learning Management System.

As the district closes out the school year, Miranda said the goal is to see ongoing growth in connections being made with families, as well as Schoology submissions.  Even as the district seeks to finish out the school year strong, planning is ongoing for the next school year, including how to best adjust to the new circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 global health pandemic.

“We’re trying to plan for every contingency,” Miranda said after the meeting. “Our goal is to provide an educational environment that prioritizes health and safety, while meeting the needs of our students.”