El Paso School Districts Asking To Extend At Home Learning To December

A lot of El Paso area school districts are working on asking the Texas Education Agency for an extension of at-home learning in the face of rising COVID-19 infections in El Paso County. In case you think they are being silly, you should know that Thursday's COVID-19 positive infection numbers are reported at 523. That is on top of Wednesday's 398 positive cases, Tuesday's 236, and Monday's 218 new positive cases. 1,375 new positive COVID-19 cases in four days. That is a scary number and even scarier is El Paso County officials saying we are on an upward trajectory of positive cases.

Because of that upward trend in positive cases, various El Paso school districts and County health officials held a meeting on Wednesday about asking the Texas Education Agency to give them permission to delay the start date for in-person classes. Here's what some of the school districts are asking for:

El Paso, Socorro and San Elizario - They want to extend remote learning through December and return to in-person classes in the spring.

Fabens ISD - They are asking the TEA for a delay for in-person classes for at least two weeks.

Canutillo ISD - CISD wants to expand remote learning, but hasn't come up with details about what that will look like.

Tornillo ISD - The district wants stay at their current 50% capacity in classes but maintain an option to scale back if needed.

Ysleta ISD - YISD hasn't made an announcement about trying to get an extension.

We'll keep you up-to-date on the district's plans as soon as we get them. In the meantime, wear your mask, wash your hands, and do your social distancing. We need to stop this upward trajectory if we ever want kids to get back to class.