Majority of Lubbock families sending kids back to classroom

Updated: Aug. 7, 2020 at 10:37 PM CDT
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LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Most Lubbock-area students have registered for school and submitted their virtual learning or on-campus learning request, and out of those who have registered, most families chose on-campus learning.

“For in class, we have about 72 percent of students that have signed up for face to face learning,” said Dr. Kathy Rollo, Lubbock ISD superintendent, adding that 22,000 students have registered. Last year, there were around 28,000 students in school.

At Lubbock-Cooper ISD, deputy superintendent Dr. Macy Satterwhite said 83 percent of students chose on-campus learning, meaning 17 percent chose a virtual classroom. Dr. Satterwhite added five to six percent of their students still have to register.

At Frenship ISD, 84.2 percent of those registered have chosen in-classroom learning, meaning the rest will be virtual learners.

School leaders say these numbers help with their planning.

“So we used to be able to say, ‘Okay, we’ll have a class of 22 students, and now we might have 20 students in a class that are on campus and five students who want to be virtual and how is that teacher supposed to meet all of their needs?’ We’re having to reconfigure and decide which are going to be our virtual teacher, our on campus teachers, or both.

Teachers at Lubbock-Cooper ISD are rearranging classrooms or setting up virtual learning classrooms, but no matter which method parents chose, Dr. Satterwhite says the kids will be in good hands.

“They can be with their friends, they can be with their teacher. But some families have extraordinary circumstances that they need to make decisions to keep their kids at home for reasons that are important to them. So, I’m really glad they do have that option.:”

Dr. Rollo at Lubbock ISD expressed a similar feeling, saying no matter where the child is learning from, she’s excited for them to get back to school.

“We know there’s nothing greater than having a teacher and students In the classroom interacting with great curriculum. There’s nothing better than that. That’s absolutely Cadillac. However, we do have a very strong virtual option too and teachers are going be teaching students in virtual school, so it’s going to be quality as well,” said Dr. Rollo.

With the preliminary numbers in, Lubbock ISD teachers are planning out their classrooms as well.

“A lot of our teachers have beanbags and couches and other neat little reading nooks in their classrooms. We’ve asked them to please pull all of those out, and then spread the desks apart as much as they possibly can.”

They’re also getting ready for virtual classrooms too, providing Chromebooks again to all students, even on-campus students in the case of a micro-closure.

Lubbock-Cooper ISD will give all of their students iPads during the first week of school.

All school districts are asking you to register your child, if you haven’t already.

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