TO: Northwest ISD Students, Parents/Caregivers, and Staff

FROM: Ryder Warren, Superintendent

SUBJECT: Superintendent Update


I hope everyone had a wonderful week, and I also hope you are preparing for a great (and very safe) weekend. This has been an outstanding week for NISD – from dozens of our students qualifying for the Destination Imagination “Global” Tournament, to Northwest High School’s One Act Play performance of Little Women, and to our students signing to be student athletes at the collegiate level. As always, I’m very proud of our students as they are finishing this school year strong. I am also very proud of our School Board members and our district and campus staff who continue to lead us with excellence during this challenging school year.
 
As we prepare for a new week, I want to share with all NISD families, staff members, and stakeholders three very important bits of information, which are the following:
 
  1. Our School Board members have blessed the plan to open our six middle school recreational facilities (tennis courts and tracks/fields) for community use. This request came to us from community members, and we have developed a plan to allow any district resident the use of our middle school recreational facilities when school is not in session and when those facilities are not being used by our students for organized practices. This link will give you information about this.
  2. Early Voting for our May 1 general and special elections begins Monday, April 19. I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to vote early. I cannot ever tell you how to vote, but please, make plans now to get out and cast your ballot in this election. Early Voting locations and times for each of our three counties can be found at www.nisdtxbond.org/voting-info. Voters have four bond propositions on the ballot as part of our bond proposal to provide nearly 5,000 additional seats for new students to help accommodate our fast growth. I truly appreciate the work of our Long-Range Planning Committee who helped develop that package to accomplish that.
  3. As you hopefully saw in yesterday’s Northwest News e-newsletter, we have updated our COVID Health and Safety Guidelines. Beginning Monday, students and staff are not required to wear masks while outside (masks continue to be required while inside), and events have returned to 100% capacity.

As I told our amazing staff members this week, I know and understand that there are differing opinions on the requirement to wear masks. As you can imagine, I have received quite a bit of input on how to keep students and staff members safe through this challenge over the last 14 months. Just please know that if you are concerned that we are not doing enough to get us back to “normal,” I am sorry. If you are concerned that we are going too far with some of the easements of the protocols, again I am sorry. Amid these challenging times, we are doing what we feel best protects our students, our staff members, and our families, and we are also trying to establish a roadmap back to “normalcy” for all of our families and staff. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.
 
Thank you for supporting our children and our schools, and again, everyone have a fun and safe weekend!
 
Ryder Warren, Superintendent
Northwest Independent School District