SAN ANTONIO – Many schools across the United States, including districts in San Antonio, are closed to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
Southwest Independent School District is moving to an online learning system after the district announced campuses would remain closed through April 3 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, families drove up to Sun Valley Elementary School to check out Chromebooks.
“Starting on Monday, we’re going to full online. And so, the students will be logging in to get their assignments. They’re going to be interacting with their teachers through platforms like Google Meet and Zoom. And so, they’ll be able to connect with their teachers daily also,” said Veronica Cuenca-Wilson, principal of Sun Valley Elementary School.
Cuenca-Wilson said families have been getting notifications through an app called Remind.
“I sent information out to the parents yesterday with a newsletter that basically gave all the information about what we were doing and how the district was moving to online learning,” Cuenca-Wilson said.
About 650 students attend Sun Valley Elementary School. Staff members handed out about 300 Chromebooks to help students continue to learn from home.
Another big change this school year is that the STAAR test was canceled.
“I think that was a relief to a lot of our parents and our students and even the teachers, because we’ve been missing so much instruction day to day with our students that we were a little concerned about that,” Cuenca-Wilson said.
Southwest ISD has 18 campuses. Every school is providing technology to its students to ensure they have the tools to learn online.
The district is also providing curbside meals for the students for breakfast and lunch at designated locations.
For more information on curbside meals, click here.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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