Dear KIPP Texas Families,
We’ve made it to November! Traditionally, this is the beginning of my favorite time of the year – the season of gratitude. Many of you observed Día de los Muertos yesterday; we’ll have the opportunity to recognize and appreciate veterans who have served our country; Transgender Awareness and National Hunger and Homelessness weeks are great reminders to be accepting, kind and giving; and of course, this month, we’ll also celebrate Thanksgiving.
There is much to celebrate. However, this November is also different. We have an election tomorrow, and there is so much uncertainty in our country right now. We are seeing that many states and businesses are taking precautions in case there is civil unrest as a result of conclusive or inconclusive election results, and we believe it is prudent for us to do so as well. If there are any changes to our normal school operations, we will inform you through our usual means: calls, texts, social media posts, and news channel updates.
If you haven’t voted (many of you may have already), make a plan to make sure your voice is heard tomorrow. Remember, Big and Little KIPPsters will be released early tomorrow, Nov. 3, to allow time for those who can and haven’t yet voted, to do so. Pre-K families should expect a separate communication from their school with more information.
_________
In-Person KIPPsters Should Bring Chromebooks Home Daily
Starting this week, if your KIPPster is learning in-person, they will be asked to take their KIPP Texas Chromebook / computer (and charger) home with them every day and bring them back to school daily.
In an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID, we may change an individual student’s schedule from in-person to virtual if they are a close contact or are COVID positive; sometimes, we may ask a class or school to stay home due to a classroom’s or school’s disinfecting process, and if our KIPPsters don’t have their Chromebooks / computers and chargers with them, they won’t have access to their virtual classes at home.
Thank you in advance for reminding your KIPPster to bring home and take back their Chromebook / computer and charger daily.
Method of Learning (MOL) Survey
The third Method of Learning Survey window will be Nov. 9 – 18 for all KIPP Texas families. You will receive a communication on November 9 to inform you the survey window is open. This is your opportunity to select whether they will change their KIPPster’s method of learning. The two options are:
- Option 1: 100% online learning, five-days-a week. This would continue virtual learning for students for the third nine week instructional cycle if parents opt into this method.
- Option 2: 100% in-person learning five-days-a-week in a classroom in a school building on our campus.
The Method of Learning survey will need to be filled out in SchoolMint (https://kipptexas.schoolmint.net/signin) for the third nine week instructional cycle. Every family must complete a Method of Learning survey even though you have completed previous surveys. Please note: if we do not receive a response, KIPPsters will continue in the same method of learning they were in the previous nine weeks. The last day to make changes to the survey will be December 7; transportation requests after November 18 won’t be guaranteed, as mapping bus routes and balancing bus loads requires a few weeks to plan and coordinate.
New KIPPsters Recruitment Season for the 2021-2022 School Year is now Open
Do you know a friend or family member that would like to enroll at KIPP Texas for the 2021-2022 school year? Starting November 1, all new families who would like to experience a joyful, academically excellent, and equitable learning environment for their children can enroll at a KIPP Texas school by submitting an application at https://kipptexas.org/enroll/.
Keep in mind that if we have more students apply than we have available seats, KIPP Texas will host a lottery for those seats on March 1, 2021. Visit the enrollment page on our website or email enrollhelp@kipptexas.org for more information or if you have any questions.
Invitation to Join KIPP Texas Equity Work Groups
As you know, KIPP Texas is committed to Championing Equity by promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our classrooms, our schools and our offices. In order to do this, we must be committed to being an anti-racist organization and we recognize that the road to social justice must be paved by collaborative and intentional hard work by our entire organization and community at large.
We have already invited our staff to help us create the KIPP Texas Equity Work Groups by volunteering to join one of the five working groups and now we want to invite our families.
The KIPP Texas Work Groups are: Training & Professional Development, Student Discipline, Hiring Practices & Policies, Academic Curriculum, and Communications. If you’re interested in joining, complete this survey. For more information, refer to this letter.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Sr. Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Chelsey Freeman Williams, at Chelsey.FreemanWilliams@KIPPTexas.org.
COVID Update
You may have seen figures from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) that show that, as of September 28, 99.8% of in-person staff at Texas schools have not tested positive since the start of in-person school in Texas and 99.3% of all in-person students in Texas have not tested positive for COVID. Many medical professionals are affirming what the data shows: schools with strong health and safety protocols are mitigating COVID community spread. This is great news.
As of October 30, KIPP Texas has had 12 Little KIPPster and 13 Big KIPPster positive cases since the start of in-person school out of approximately 10,500 Little KIPPsters learning in-person and close to 3000 Big KIPPsters on campuses. That means 99.6% of staff and 99.9% of Little KIPPsters have not tested positive. Additionally, we are seeing little to no COVID community spread inside our schools in those instances when there is a positive case. While we wish there were no positive cases coming in our doors, I’m thankful that our health and safety protocols inside our buildings are working.
Let’s continue the great job our Big and Little KIPPsters are doing to wear our masks at all times (except when eating or drinking) – especially when they are in their classrooms, staying six feet apart whenever possible, and socializing responsibility in and out of our buildings to prevent community spread.
You can find KIPP Texas COVID positive cases figures on our website, as well as many resources for each city, if you have any questions or concerns: https://kipptexas.org/coronavirus-updates/.
Thank you for supporting our KIPPsters, those who are learning in-person and those who are virtual. In the month of Thanksgiving, we have tremendous gratitude for you, our families, for your belief in KIPP, our leaders, and our teachers.
Please vote tomorrow if you can and haven’t done so already.
With gratitude,
Sehba Ali
Important Links
Virtual Learning Portal
At a Glance Back to School Guide
Complete Family Back to School Guide
Grab & Go meals
Register to Vote
