The wheels on the bus still go round and round at Taylor ISD, but today your school bus driver may be the director of transportation, and your teacher might be Superintendent Devin Padavil himself.
Keeping Taylor ISD classrooms open in the face of teacher and staff shortages takes an all-hands-on-deck approach with everybody pitching in, according to Padavil.
“We believe it’s best for students to be in school with the structure that it provides them, and we’re literally pulling from every department to cover classes and to do it without any sense of diminished quality,” said Padavil.
Taylor Mayor Brandt Rydell agrees that coping with the virus takes a community effort.
“We all have to do our part,” said Rydell. “City officials have to balance providing community services with keeping our employees safe, and our schools must balance the safety of their students, teachers, and staff with being able to offer a quality education that includes in-person learning.”
School operations are on a day-by-day basis, Padavil warns.
“I touch base daily with principals and department heads to project if we can make the next day work,” he said.
The district experiences as many as 40 teacher shortages a day, though relief may be on the horizon according to the Williamson County and Cities Health District (WCCHD).
“At this time, most models agree that Texas’ spike in cases should be peaking towards the end of January,” said Nicole Evert, WCCHD epidemiology and emergency preparedness director, so we expect another 3-4 weeks of high case volume.”
Part of the Taylor ISD strategy to maintain normal operations includes competitive compensation. Teachers who cover extra duties receive extra pay. Substitute teachers receive incentive pay for working more days in the district, on top of a rate increase they received in 2021.
Another part of the strategy involves backup plans for all critical operations.
“Redundancy is the key to make sure we aren’t in the same situation,” said Lance Weidler, director of Support Operations.
Weidler says he stays in contact with other school districts to discuss approaches to common issues and researches best practices to make sure Taylor ISD benefits from updated information and technology.
Along with the school districts’ efforts, it takes community support to keep the schools open, and one important way to do that is to monitor your children before you send them to school, according to Weidler.
COVID-19 symptoms affecting children often include fever, sore throat and runny nose or congestion. Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order four free at-home COVID-19 tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The tests give results in 30 minutes without a lab, so parents can more easily determine whether their children are safe to attend school.
Tests can be ordered online at http://covidtests.gov.
