Pete Freedman
All Campuses In Dallas Independent School District To Close Indefinitely, With At-Home Learning Activated & Meal Distribution Available At Select Locations.
The coronavirus hits just keep on coming.
Immediately after Mayor Eric Johnson announced on Monday afternoon a ban on gatherings of more than 50-plus people, as well as the immediately closure of all dine-in restaurants, bars, gyms and other entertainment facilities, the Dallas Independent School District announced plans to close all schools indefinitely.
Following advice from the Dallas County Health and Human Services department, DISD has shuttered all campuses across the district, effective immediately.
This decision follows Governor Greg Abbott’s earlier-in-the-day reveal that he has waived STAAR testing requirements for the 2019-2020 school year across the state.
Last Thursday, DISD halted all non-essential school activities as an immediate precaution in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic’s spread.
Per this evening’s DISD statement announcing the school-sclosure plan, the district has “activated at-home learning, [its] teachers are prepared to begin distance instruction, and Dallas ISD Food and Child Nutrition Services (FCNS) will distribute meals at select campus locations.”
In a separate joint statement, the DISD Board of Trustees said the following: “We understand that this news will have widespread impacts, including hardships, on our students, their families, our employees and the broader community. Dallas ISD weighed those impacts along with many others. The gravity of this moment is not lost on our Board of Trustees or the Dallas ISD administration. We fully support the Superintendent’s decision and believe that this is the right course of action
It added: “Our city has persisted through Ebola, tornadoes and other devastation. Each time, our city has risen to the occasion. With coordinated effort, each of us doing our part, and our respective government entities remaining committed to our community’s well-being, we will rise to meet this challenge together. That is what we do in Dallas.”
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