Updated Friday, March 20 — The Texas Education Agency has published a map of locations Texas students can pick up meals during COVID-19 school closures.
If your school district or charter network isn’t on the map, check its website for the latest updates.
On Thursday, Governor Abbott ordered all Texas schools closed through April 3. Most San Antonio-area schools had already announced closures through at least that date; some schools have announced longer closures. IDEA Public Schools across Texas will be closed until further notice, and the School of Science & Technology will be closed until at least April 10.
Updated Tuesday, March 17 — The following San Antonio area school systems have extended their school closures until at least Friday, April 3: North East ISD, Northside ISD, San Antonio ISD, Edgewood ISD, East Central ISD, Alamo Heights ISD, Somerset ISD, Fort Sam Houston ISD, Judson ISD, Southside ISD, Harlandale ISD, Southwest ISD, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, South San Antonio ISD, Randolph Field ISD, Lackland ISD, Pre-K 4 SA and KIPP Texas.
Several districts have asked parents to prepare for the possibility of long-term school closures.
Published Friday, March 13 — School districts across Bexar County havve decided to extend their spring breaks by one week to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Barry Perez is in charge of communications at Northside Independent School District, which serves more than 100,000 students.
“I know that we certainly took some criticism, I think for waiting as long as we did, but at the end of the day, the reality is that many families count on us," Perez said. "They count on the district for providing reliable and safe supervision while they work.”
Vanessa Hurd, San Antonio ISD’s chief external relations officer, said the city’s prohibition on gatherings with more than 500 people played a key role in the decision.
“While that excludes schools, we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can as a community to slow the advance of this virus,” Hurd said. “It's clear to us – and by us I mean not only SAISD, but all of the schools in Bexar County – that we can best be a part of slowing the advance of this virus, and therefore protecting our communities by temporarily closing schools.”
Area school districts and charter schools that have extended spring break through March 20 include:
- Alamo Heights ISD
- Boerne ISD
- Comal ISD
- East Central ISD
- Edgewood ISD
- Fort Sam Houston ISD
- Great Hearts Academies
- Harlandale ISD
- Judson ISD
- Lackland ISD
- La Vernia ISD
- Medina Valley ISD
- Northside ISD
- North East ISD
- Pre-K 4 SA
- Randolph Field ISD
- San Antonio ISD
- Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD
- School of Science and Technology
- Somerset ISD
- South San Antonio ISD
- Southside ISD
- Southwest ISD
IDEA Public Schools, KIPP Texas and Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering will be closed for two weeks, reopening on Monday, March 30.
Several private schools, including the schools run by the San Antonio Archdiocese, will also be closed. The Catholic schools run by the archdiocese will be closed through at least April 3.
School Meals
One of the major concerns for area public schools is ensuring that the thousands of children who receive free and reduced-price lunch don’t go hungry while their schools are closed.
“School is really much more than just school. I mean, it really is a place where many social services are also distributed,” Hurd said. “We need to be thinking about not just how do we deliver education with fidelity, but how do we ensure that our students who rely on us for one, two or even three meals a day. How do we make sure that they are adequately served?”
Northside, SAISD, EISD, IDEA and most other area public schools said Friday that they will continue to provide some form of school breakfast and lunch while their campuses are closed.
Perez said Northside will distribute meals curbside at several locations throughout the district.
“Basically they'll drive through and be provided the food,” Perez said. “We've tried to make sure that we have a system in place where contact with other individuals will be minimized.”
Posted meal pickup information for area districts and charter networks:
- Northside ISD
- North East ISD
- Comal ISD
- San Antonio ISD
- Judson ISD
- Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD
- Harlandale ISD
- Southwest ISD
- Edgewood ISD
- East Central ISD
- Boerne ISD
- South San Antonio ISD
- Southside ISD
- Medina Valley ISD
- Alamo Heights ISD
- Somerset ISD
- La Vernia ISD
- IDEA Public Schools
- Great Hearts Academies
- Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering
Employee Pay
Perez did not have information about employee pay immediately available, but Hurd said SAISD has already completed payroll for next week, and all employees will receive their paychecks.
“We are working diligently with the Texas Education Agency to ensure that we complete the waivers and the necessary requirements so that all of our staff will not face any disruption in pay based on the state-funding formula,” Hurd said. “We're also going to work with our board to explore some emergency leave provisions so that we can ensure that people who are sick are able to stay home.
“Our commitment is to do everything in our power to ensure that there'll be no disruption in pay.”
Hurd said that commitment include hourly workers, who are often the most vulnerable to losing pay during emergency closures.
Camille Phillips can be reached at Camille@tpr.org or on Twitter at @cmpcamille.
