TISD students return to campus

Tioga schools returned to in-person learning this week, after beginning the first four weeks of the semester with virtual-only instruction.

Superintendent Dr. Charles Holloway said a total of 647 students returned to in-school learning Monday morning.

One positive COVID-19 test result was received by a middle school student, leading to the quarantine of “about 20 kiddos” who may have come in contact with the student.

“That’s been about the only hiccup so far,” Holloway said. “Anytime you have to send a kid back home, that’s not a good situation for anyone. But we said that when we come back [to in-school learning] we want to come back to stay. Things like this are required when you have a positive result.”

Students at Tioga Elementary were treated to a visit by Spiderman on Monday morning. Holloway said teachers and staff “may have been just as excited as the kiddos” about the superhero visit.

“It was a big hit,” Holloway said. “Maybe it was just a little distraction for the pre-K and kindergarten kiddos who focused on Spiderman instead of their parents driving away for the first time. It was great, and I think everyone really enjoyed it.”

Holloway said the district “will take things one day at a time” as it continues to navigate this unprecedented time for schools.

“It’s 11:17 a.m. right now,” Holloway said. “By 12:17, a lot of things can change. We’ll continue to focus on the total [COVID-19] related numbers around the state and especially in the areas where we have transfers coming from. The Grayson County numbers seem to be trending down and that looks like the case for just about everywhere except for Tarrant County – and we don’t have any transfers from there.”

At last month’s board meeting, the TISD board voted to temporarily suspend transfer student acceptance. The board will re-evaluate the policy in December for the spring semester.

Holloway added that he didn’t know of any COVID-19 outbreaks within the competing schools in Tioga’s athletic districts thus far.

“Trenton and Alvord had a couple things a few weeks ago,” Holloway said. “It’s kind of one of those things where you try to focus most on your own kiddos. We don’t want anything bad to happen to anyone. But the best way to handle that is to monitor your own situation as best as you can. You’ve got to stay on top of it.”