Facing rising concerns from parents and Cameron County officials who issued an order prohibiting face-to-face instruction for public and charter schools, Head Start Executive Director Manuela Rendon has issued a directive to stop planned face-to-face instruction Monday at the organization's 57 centers.
The centers serve a population aged 0-4 and some educators said it might not be possible to prevent a virus outbreak when dealing with children that young.
Rendon had countered that all the safety procedures were in place and that the centers were no more than day cares. Those plans included a novel way to insure social distancing – making the children use hula hoops.
Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez said he had provided County Judge Eddie Treviño with documentation showing that the centers were more than simple day cares as Rendon has contended, and instead provide cognitive development instruction. The planned one-to-one instruction had included preparing and feeding them formula in bottles and changing their diapers.
"The judge is talking with them now," he said Saturday before Rendon sent center directors and staff her message putting off the implementation of face-to-face instruction because of a COVID-19 infection of a staff member at "the center," but did not specify the location.
She went on to say that as "an extraordinary preventive measure" she was calling off the in-person instruction for a week at all the centers across the county but would continue remote instruction and meals distributions.
In keeping with the county's prohibition of in-person instruction the Brownsville Independent School District will begin the 2020-2021 school with virtual learning beginning August 25 and school buildings will remain closed to students until September 8.
That schedule may change depending on the levels of COVID-19 infection in the community.
The BISD model allows parents to commit to distance learning two weeks before the start of the school year. Parents who chose distance learning and want for their child to switch to face to face learning need to wait until the end of the marking period to change to face-to-face learning. Or, if they want, they can do face-to-face half a day and distance learning the other the other half.