CORPUS CHRISTI — Three feet is the new six feet….at least as far as social distancing goes at West Oso I.S.D. schools.
“We can manage it. We'll think we'll be just fine….providing that all the other social system protocols are still in place and we're not changing that at all,” Conrado Garcia, the West Oso ISD Superintendant said.
He said managing the spread of COVID-19 will come with a few guidelines including requiring masks and washing hands often. He said the Texas Education Agency has instructed them that schools need to have over 60 percent of students physically in class by the last six weeks of school. Right now that number is at 48 percent.
“Now with the emphasis that the TEA has issued…we have got to start looking at opening schools up,” Garcia said.
He said opening schools back up is easier with three feet of social distancing because more students can be put in a classroom. He said about about eighty percent of West Oso I.S.D.. staff and teachers are vaccinated against COVID with at least one dose.
However, even with a vaccine out, Nancy Vera of the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers feels vaccines alone are not enough.
“We’re going to adhere in CCISD at least an other school districts to the traditional mask wearing and trying to keep our social distance because we’re not out of the woods just yet,” Vera said.
She said that prior to the CDC’s announcement today, C.C.I.S.D. was practicing four feet of distance so the three feet guideline isn’t much different.
Vera said next year she can see much of the CDC guidelines being lifted, which she is comfortable with as long as it is done gradually.
Premont I.S.D. on the other hand is still practicing six feet of distance.
