As school year ends, districts prepare for full return to in-person next year

EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — Friday marked the last day of school for Ysleta Independent School District. El Paso ISD will end its school year next week on June 15 and Socorro ISD's last day of school was last week.

All three, along with every school in Texas, will return to in-person instruction only next school year. There will not be an option for districts to offer remote learning because of the failure of Texas House Bill 1468.

That measure would have allowed school districts to continue allowing some students and parents to choose to stay home. Because of the way state funding for schools works, districts get money based on average daily in-person attendance. The Texas Education Agency issued a waiver for all school districts last year, allowing virtual attendance to count towards funding.

House Bill 1468 would have extended that waiver. The legislation died in the House before it was voted on last weekend.

In the case of YISD, that's welcome news. The district sent CBS4 this statement:

"We believe the best opportunity for our students is to learn in person with their teachers on our YISD campuses. During the legislative session, it was determined that school districts will not be allowed to offer a remote learning option in the 2021-2022 school year. Therefore, we look forward to having all of our students return to face-to-face learning. "

Some teachers are ready for things to get back to normal in the classroom.

Ramon Benevides, who teaches biology at Del Valle High School, said teaching during the pandemic was uncharted territory.

"All of us, even though we were experienced teachers, a lot of us became new teachers when the fall started," said Benevides. "As we’ve done before, we rose to the challenge and we made it through."

Diana Beltran teaches dual language kindergarten at Lancaster Elementary.

"They did things I didn’t think 5 year olds would be able to achieve... as scary as it was, COVID was a blessing in disguise because the kids learned valuable skills," said Beltran.

Both noted the ways technology changed the way they approached lesson plans.

"One of the positives about remote learning is we’ve learned a lot of educational technology that we can apply in our classrooms and because of that we have more tools in our toolbox," said Benevides.

It is still unclear how the classroom will look when the 2021-2022 academic year begins, but Benevides and Beltran both say they're ready to have all students back on campus.