March 17, 2020
Dear Aristoi Community,
I hope this update finds you all well. Your health and safety is our top priority at this time. I know that all of you are anxious to know what the near future holds for your children and their education. Thank you for your patience during this difficult time. I’m grateful to our families, to our staff, and to our teachers for meeting the rapidly evolving challenges with grace and a can-do attitude.
We held a board meeting last night in order to put in place contingency plans that will allow Aristoi to continue educating our students even if we cannot return to normal school operations in the weeks to come. Here is what you need to know:
- We will offer online learning through Google Classroom at this time beginning March 23rd.
- We have emailed a survey to you today to solicit vital information for our online learning. Your input will be instrumental in a successful launch of our online instruction on Monday, March 23rd. (Please fill out and submit by tomorrow, March 18, at 10:00 p.m.)
- You will be contacted by your child’s teacher(s) or Head of School regarding lessons that will begin next week.
- We have closed the campus from March 23rd through April 10th. We will continually evaluate the situation in the community and follow the guidance from federal and state authorities to make determinations of our plans after April 10th.
- April 13th is already on the calendar as a school holiday.
Since Friday, March 13th, I’ve joined a daily conference call with the TEA Commissioner of Education, Michael Morath and school superintendents across the state. These are the important points from those calls:
- TEA is giving wide latitude to public and charter schools to make the decision of whether to remain open (with a wide range of precautions) or to move to an online or similar education delivery method.
- Governor Abbott waived STAAR testing requirements for the 2019-2020 school year.
- This week of closure gives us the time we need to plan and train staff for online instruction.
- While schools are closed, the federal summer meal program will remain operational to provide free meals for all students at the area schools listed below.
- Tea.texas.gov/coronavirus is the web page that the Texas Education Agency has set up to provide updates for public schools, including summary debriefs of Superintendent calls that have taken place.
To keep up to date on the latest information on the developing situation on the spread of COVID-19, here are some important links from federal and state authorities:
Free Meals for Katy Children:
To assist families in meeting the needs of students during the district closure, school breakfast and lunches will be offered to all Katy area children ages 0-18, free of charge. Children do not need to be an enrolled in a Katy ISD school in order to receive a meal. The meals will be served at the campuses listed below from 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, beginning on Monday, March 16, 2020. All meals will be provided in a "grab and go" style outside of the cafeteria near the covered walkway where buses pickup and drop off students. Families will not be able to enter the campus during the meal service.
Meal "Grab and Go" locations:
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Bear Creek Elementary
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Bethke Elementary
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Golbow Elementary
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Hutsell Elementary
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Mayde Creek Elementary
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Memorial Parkway Elementary
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Sundown Elementary
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West Memorial Elementary
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Williams Elementary
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Tompkins High School
Should you have any questions about this food service, please do not hesitate to contact Katy ISD Food Services at (281) 396-2151.
Finally, thank you all for entrusting us with your child’s education. Our faculty is working diligently to prepare lessons that will be rolled out on Monday, March 23rd. You’ll be receiving important communication from the school and from teachers.
Sincerely,
Brenda Davidson
Superintendent
