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August 27, 2021
Medina ISD closes campuses for one week
By Jessica Nohealapah’ahi
The Bandera Prophet
Medina ISD will close its campuses for all learning instruction through the end of next week, and is planning to reopen on Tuesday, Sept. 7. In a public announcement, Superintendent Kevin W. Newsom said the district had tried to keep the Covid-Delta variant contained, “to no avail.”
“We are a small 1-A (K-12) public school with about 265 kids and around 70 total staff members. We have some personnel in administration, health workers (RN nurse), teaching staff, office personnel and even members of our custodial staff out of school at this time eigher because they or someone with whom they have been in close contact have tested positive for Covid-19. We do not have a large outbreak among our student population or in students who participate in extracurricular activities.
Because key personnel were not present to provide for the instruction and day-to-day operation of the campus at the level our parents and d community expects, we felt it necessary to close at this time. It is our plan to return on Tuesday, Sept. 7th to serve our students in full capacity. In the meantime, we will continue to ensure that our facilities will be sanitized in accordance with CDC guidance.
We also want to assure everyone that our staff members and students who have tested positive for Covid-19 are all doing well and quarantining in accordance with our Covid-19 plan. We do ask that you please keep all members of our community here in Medina, as well across this county, in your thoughts and prayers,” Newsom wrote.
Newsom said extracurricular activities will continue as scheduled, including dual credit and online science classes, however he urged all participants to wear masks.
“This is our safetly protocol in order to try and keep those activities open without increasing the spread of Covid. If we do not get that participation we will revisit the safety in these activities in order to be proactive in our fight against the Covid-19 Delta virus.
There will be no remote learning offered and we will close our campus through Sept. 3, then see where we are on the health of our students and professiona staff and make another assessment if needed. I had hoped and prayed I would never have to send out a letter like this again but in reality when you lose teachers, staff and key members of your administration team it is hard to operate in a manner we consider safe.”
“We are a small 1-A (K-12) public school with about 265 kids and around 70 total staff members. We have some personnel in administration, health workers (RN nurse), teaching staff, office personnel and even members of our custodial staff out of school at this time eigher because they or someone with whom they have been in close contact have tested positive for Covid-19. We do not have a large outbreak among our student population or in students who participate in extracurricular activities.
Because key personnel were not present to provide for the instruction and day-to-day operation of the campus at the level our parents and d community expects, we felt it necessary to close at this time. It is our plan to return on Tuesday, Sept. 7th to serve our students in full capacity. In the meantime, we will continue to ensure that our facilities will be sanitized in accordance with CDC guidance.
We also want to assure everyone that our staff members and students who have tested positive for Covid-19 are all doing well and quarantining in accordance with our Covid-19 plan. We do ask that you please keep all members of our community here in Medina, as well across this county, in your thoughts and prayers,” Newsom wrote.
Newsom said extracurricular activities will continue as scheduled, including dual credit and online science classes, however he urged all participants to wear masks.
“This is our safetly protocol in order to try and keep those activities open without increasing the spread of Covid. If we do not get that participation we will revisit the safety in these activities in order to be proactive in our fight against the Covid-19 Delta virus.
There will be no remote learning offered and we will close our campus through Sept. 3, then see where we are on the health of our students and professiona staff and make another assessment if needed. I had hoped and prayed I would never have to send out a letter like this again but in reality when you lose teachers, staff and key members of your administration team it is hard to operate in a manner we consider safe.”