Mineola schools plan to resume on the scheduled first day of classes Thursday, Aug. 13.

Facing the myriad challenges that will bring, MISD Superintendent Cody Mize said, “We cannot allow this to turn into a generational education crisis.”

He predicted, “This will be our finest hour,” for teachers as well as the entire staff.

A lot of things about the 2020-21 school year will look much different, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mize held a roundtable last Tuesday evening via Zoom to brief parents, teachers and community members on the district’s plans.

Schools were shut down in mid-March during the pandemic and did not reopen. Student work was conducted through various methods of online lessons and pick-up lessons.

Though classes will be held, Mize explained that parents can opt to have their students stay away from the campuses and conduct their classes online.

He said two methods are planned, synchronous and asynchronous.

Asynchronous will be like the model used during the spring, where students do their work on their own schedule.

Synchronous learning means the students will be participating in their classes virtually on a traditional schedule.

And through the year students may move in and out of those plans depending upon factors such as case counts.

But before the students can resume classes, the district is adopting measures to make campuses as safe as possible.

Between July 15 and Aug. 15 the state will be distributing personal protective equipment to school districts.

Those include disposable and reusable masks in student and adult sizes, gloves, hand sanitizer, and face shields.

Mize said he did not see a need to mandate mask usage and will allow parents to make that decision.

He said that is one of the biggest questions he has been hit with.

He asked for help and cooperation in making buildings and facilities as safe as possible.

The district needs to do a good job of screening students before coming into buildings and getting on buses, he said.

The staff is working on that on a small scale during summer school.

He compared coming to school to going to the airport, where all passengers are screened.

If that can be done effectively, it will give the district more freedom once the students are inside.

As far as social distancing, “It is impossible to be able to do this,” Mize said.

Temperatures will be checked, and there will be hand sanitizer stations in every classroom.

A holding room to segregate students with symptoms will be set up at each location.

“I do worry about the extra time we’re going to need,” he said, to get students into the buildings each morning.

Addressing meal service, Mize said he is still on the fence about that, including whether the district might feed students in their classrooms instead of using the traditional cafeteria setting.

He said there may be ways to use spaces to be able to serve meals, but there may be some times when the meals would be delivered to classrooms.

Recess will remain a staple of the school day.

“Kids need that as normal as possible,” Mize said.

Buses will be equipped with hand sanitizer, and each will have a monitor onboard for screening.

With the limited number of bus drivers, Mize said an outbreak of positive cases could be devastating to the transportation system.

During the summer the district has used five buses to transport just 44 children in order to preserve distancing. This is not economical, and Mize said there would have to be some easing of those restrictions.

“This is an area where we need help more than ever (from parents),” Mize said.

An outbreak among teachers could also be trying, such as whether there would be enough substitutes during mandatory quarantine periods.

As far as extracurricular activities and fall sports, Mize said it is still wait-and-see.

Districts are waiting on guidance from the University Interscholastic League.

The response to summer workouts has included some districts shutting down those programs after positive tests.

Turning to instruction, Mize said online course work is tough. Students do better in a classroom where they can interact with and learn from each other.

“The COVID slide is very real,” he said of students regressing while away from the classroom.

One issue was connectivity. Those with good internet were generally able to stay caught up compared to those who had to pick up paper packets.

The district will need to identify early on those children who have fallen behind to help them get caught up.

Mize said he is most worried about those students who were just getting the grasp of reading when schools were closed.

On a conference call with the state education commissioner that afternoon, Mize said he was shocked to learn that accountability through testing is still on the table. Testing and accountability were waived during the spring.

To the issue of field trips, Mize noted one district has already said they will not be held

“We don’t know what that’s going to look like,” he said.

Throughout his remarks Mize stressed flexibility, such as additional absence days for students or teachers who might not be ill but have to quarantine because of a family member.

He said the district plans to do a good job of communicating information as the start of school nears, including another roundtable in late July.