Thrall ISD goes back to school with in-person learning from day one

The parents have spoken. Monday is the first day of school in Thrall ISD. And this rural district in the far east end of Williamson County, in-person learning will be offered to students beginning with the first day of school.

Thrall ISD has more than 700 students spread out over 149 square miles, but all of those students attend the same elementary, middle school and high school.

All their schools are starting off today offering in-person learning from day one, but they're not offering classroom instruction every day. Instead they’re offering classroom learning on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays with Wednesdays classes offered exclusively online.

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Actually all of their classes are offered online which puts them in a good position in case they have a problem with coronavirus down the road and need to send some students home.

Thrall High School Principal Travis Dube says from day one students have the option to stay with 100 percent virtual learning if that's what they want to do. He adds, “We all have to be comfortable with this process. It can’t be something that we force everybody back together. That would make everybody very uncomfortable. And we want to do this as safely and slowly as we need to."

The principal expects everyone to get the hang of the changes in short order and make the district a model for others. “If we do this well,” he says, “And we do this the way that i know that we can we’ll make improvements and we’ll be able to show schools in our area just how it’s done and done well. And we’ll get it back to as close to normal as we can sooner that way.”

But Thrall ISD Superintendent Tommy hooker wants to see even more from his district. In his superintendent's message he says, “Through each of these challenges, we will become a stronger and more resilient tiger family. We will not return to normal; we will return to better!"