The new school year got off to a terrific start, according to area school officials.
“RISD had a great first day of school. While administrators enjoy time in the summer for planning, nothing is better than getting our students back on campus. Traffic is always a concern the first week, and with the road work on US 79, it is causing a challenge for some families,” Superintendent Denise Monzingo said.
Milano’s Elisabeth Luevanos was equally enthusiastic about starting her first school year as the district superintendent.
“We had a great first day of school. Students were excited to be back on campus and the staff was eager to see students as we start the new school year. Our focus is on the health and wellness of our students as we continue our stringent sanitizing and cleaning procedures as we did last year. It is going to be a great year. It’s a great day to be an Eagle!”
Thorndale’s superintendent noted that his district was welcoming more students and some new staffers to his schools this year.
“We are very excited to be back in school. We have some awesome new additions to our staff and quite a few new students. We are currently at 212 in high school, 137 in middle school and 238 in elementary for a total of 587. We believe that this number will land around 595 in a week or two, which will be about 20 students more than last year,” he said. “We are seeing consistent growth, especially in our lower grades with grade levels near capacity in most grades. We were proud to be able to offer our students as normal a year as possible in 20-21 and it is our goal to continue that trend.”
At Rockdale Elementary, Principal Alesha Eoff was glad to see youngsters ready to soak up knowledge in the coming year.
“We were so excited to have our students back on campus with us. Their smiling faces and eagerness to learn make our job fulfilling. We hope our students have a wonderful year of learning and growing at Rockdale Elementary School,” she said.
Intermediate Principal Cheyenne Miller said her teachers are ready for the challenges of the new school year.
“It was wonderful to see our “why” come back to campus. Amidst all the craziness in the world it is great to see the resiliency and smiles on our students’ faces. Our teachers are excited and eager to start the school year,” she said.
Renee Lee, the principal at the junior high school, praised her staff for being ready to go on opening say.
“Special shout out to the RJH staff for meeting the needs of the students at minute one. All students were greeted with a smile and if anyone needed support they were quick to jump in. I also want to thank the community for helping us greet the students with elbow bumps. This is going to be a great year.”
Brent Hasselbach, the principal at the high school said his students were raring to get into the new school year.
“I think students were ready to get back to school and we were ready to have all of them back on campus. It is always exciting to think about all of the great things our students will accomplish throughout the year.”
But then came day two and things, for RISD, got bumpy when COVID-19 was found on the high school campus.
On Aug. 19, Rockdale High School principal Brent Hasselbach sent an email to parents in saying one or more students had tested positive for COVID-19.
On Friday the school district informed The Reporter of the current district COVID-19 response policy: “RISD has had COVID protocols in place since last school year. We are continuing to update them based on conversations with Milam County Health Department and changes from the Texas Education Agency. The protocols can be located on our website, and they have been shared out with our families. We have also posted our COVID dashboard which shows positive cases on each campus. Our school board is updated daily on positive cases.”
The next school board meeting is Sept. 20.
“Milano ISD does not have any current positive COVID-19 cases for students nor staff. We will continue to monitor closely as the school year progresses,” Luevanos said of Milano.
In Thorndale, Ivy also reported not COVID-19 cases.
“We are, of course, constantly monitoring health information and guidance from TEA and from our valued local health-care providers and will make adjustments as necessary to provide for the best possible educational environment for our students. It’s going to be a great year in TISD,” he said.
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