North Texas News

When the first day of school arrived on Aug. 13, after board members voted to reopen live classrooms, Pilot Point Independent School District (ISD) Superintendent Todd Southard did not know what to expect from his team's efforts to keep students, teachers and staff safe from COVID-19.

“I was afraid of how our procedures would operate and what would the parents' reaction be,” he told North Texas News. “I was nervous for the kids who were coming to Kindergarten for the first time, but I have since relaxed quite a bit because I feel like we're doing our due diligence and that the procedures we’ve got in place are working.”

Pilot Point is among the school districts in Texas that decided to go through with brick-and-mortar learning this fall and, so far, there hasn’t been a coronavirus outbreak in Denton County’s Pilot Point ISD, according to Southard.

Supt. Todd Southard | https://www.pilotpointisd.com/

“We ordered a ton of rubber doorstops to keep rooms open so that air is circulating and so that kids don’t have to touch door handles,” he said. “It's the little details you've got to think about that you normally wouldn't think of.”

The state of Texas has experienced a surge in coronavirus cases in recent months. A total of 586,730 cases were reported as of Aug. 25, with 11,576 deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. In Denton County, there have been 9,235 cases reported with 119 deaths.

But that has not deterred Southard.

“I've spent a lot of my time doing podcasts, explaining to the community how things are going to look, how the procedures are going to work and the community has been very supportive of our kids returning to school,” he said. “We have about 75% of our kids in class right now.”

Part of Southard’s outreach was a letter dated July 30 and sent to parents and students two weeks before school started. In it, the superintendent explained that students would fall behind socially, emotionally and academically if they did not return to class.

“There are most certainly risks coming to school,” he wrote. “Although we would like to ensure that no child or faculty or staff member becomes infected with this virus, that is simply not possible. However, what we can do is ensure that we will do everything in our power to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

Southard does not regret his recommendation to reopen, nor the board’s decision in favor of it.

“Everyone is doing a very good job,” he said. “Teachers are cleaning desktops. As soon as students walk in, they get a squirt of hand sanitizer. When they are in the common areas, even for the children younger than fourth grade, they wear a mask. I think what we've got in place is reasonable.”