FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD)- Students returned to schools in Fort Worth ISD Monday morning. The 2021-2022 school year will take place with all in-person instruction and additional class time.
"We're not post-pandemic, we're in the middle of the pandemic, but learning recovery is essential," says Superintendent Kent Scribner. "We know there is a percentage of our students who really struggled with virtual instruction, so, from our perspective, starting in person is essential toward recovering from pandemic learning loss."
Fort Worth ISD will offer an extended calendar, longer school days and 14 weeks of Saturday classes in some areas. At schools with Saturday classes, math and reading will be taught in the morning; enrichment and STEM will be taught in the afternoon.
"We want to make sure our students have every opportunity with high quality teaching, on-task," Scribner says. "We believe getting back to in-person learning is the best thing for our students."
Scribner says Fort Worth ISD has continued working to ensure children graduate with an education they can use to succeed at a two or four year college, and the district has also been working with local businesses to ensure students have opportunities to learn skills that would be useful to companies.
"We're working very closely with businesses to find out what characteristics, what needs, they have then backwards-mapping those needs so our programs prepare our students to fill those jobs," Scribner says.
A judge has rejected Fort Worth ISD's mask requirement. In a ruling Friday, Tarrant County 141st District Judge John Chupp granted a temporary restraining order filed by a parent.
The ruling said the mask requirement "was made without authority and actually an illegal act under Gov. Abbott's Executive Order GA-38."
"Although the courts have prohibited us from requiring masks, we certainly are strongly encouraging masks and recommending masks," Scribner says. "I'm encouraged that, overwhelmingly, our students, faculty and staff are choosing to wear masks."
The ruling said the mask requirement issued by Scribner was a violation of the open meetings act because it was a "policy decision made without a vote or notice on any agenda."
The Fort Worth school board has called a special meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. to discuss pending litigation dealing with facemask requirements. The meeting will be at the Fort Worth Independent School District Professional Development Center:
3150 McCart Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76110
The meeting can also be viewed here: