I hope everyone had a great week. It is crazy that we are already in October, and we are almost to the end of our first nine-week grading period. While these first few weeks seem to have flown by, I hope you and your child can see the progress he/she has made in this short time. Our students and teachers have been hard at work and I could not be more proud of them.

The first thing I want to do in this update is to thank our parents, caregivers, and our students. Since I wrote the last letter warning all of us about the TikTok challenges that some of our kids were engaging in, those activities have declined. We do need to remain focused on this, because all of these activities have to stop. As I stated in my last update, I am hoping and praying our kids are smart enough to stay away from any of these outside influences.

To make sure we are all informed, NISD has received word from our local police departments that there are more challenges coming from this social media site in the coming months. One particular TikTok “dare” challenges students to touch their teachers inappropriately.

Students, parents, and caregivers – I cannot even put into words how bad this would be for any of our kids to do this. The consequences of any actions like this would be immediate and strong. We have 1,700 teachers in NISD who love and sacrifice for our students every day. No one is going to put their hands on them, especially our kids. As I said, we feel most of our students who were even thinking about acting out these challenges have wised up, but they, and all of the adults in their lives, must remain vigilant to make sure our young men and women are making the best decisions for themselves and their families.

Below are some very important changes that some families are going to see in the next couple of weeks, so please read this carefully.

With the end of our first grading period on October 8, the Remote Learning option will come to a close. We are excited to welcome back more than 700 students who chose to participate in this learning option for the first nine weeks of school. After much consideration, the district is moving forward with ending Remote Learning as originally planned. As I’ve shared before, I truly believe kids learn best and teachers teach best when they can be face to face. Thankfully, the number of COVID cases in the district has been steadily and significantly decreasing in our schools. This decrease coupled with the need to help our students recover academically (and otherwise) from COVID’s impact, I am eager to have all of our students back in our schools for In-Person Learning.

Plans are already underway to welcome back these 700 students and 46 teachers, 18 who have been serving as full-time Remote teachers. As we prepare for this transition, it’s important that you know this impacts more than just our returning Remote students … current In-Person classes and teacher assignments across the district may need to be adjusted, particularly in grades K-6.

As a fast-growth school district, classroom adjustments and balancing the number of students in each class is something we deal with every year. While operating as efficiently as possible, we plan for an increasing number of students; however, our student enrollment is already exceeding the projections set for this school year. While this growth is spread across the district and at all grade levels, it particularly impacts our lower grade levels due to lower student-to-teacher ratios. Between creating In-Person classes for our returning Remote teachers, balancing existing classes with the return of 700 Remote students, and hiring additional teachers due to our growth, we ask for your patience as we make these necessary (and hopefully few) adjustments.

I value and appreciate that our students and teachers have already begun forming a relationship after these first weeks of school and know teacher and class changes are not ideal. However, we also want to maintain an effective learning environment with an appropriate number of students per teacher. All of our teachers in Northwest ISD are excellent, and I trust that those impacted by these adjustments will grow to love their new teacher just as much their current teacher.

We are actively analyzing classroom assignments and the number of students in each class and grade level. If your child’s teacher will change as a result of these adjustments, your campus administrator will notify you next week in preparation for the start of the second grading period on Tuesday, October 12. Thank you again for your patience and grace as we navigate these challenging times together.

The academic slide some students have experienced due to COVID is very real, and it is important that we enter this next grading period with a renewed dedication to dig in and get to work. Please encourage your child to finish this next week strong and to begin the next grading period even stronger.

Thank you for supporting our children and our schools. Everyone stay safe and well!

Ryder Warren, Superintendent

Northwest Independent School District