With the recent new guidelines announced by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and safety recommendations by local health officials, Castleberry ISD will not begin in-person learning until September 28th. The Castleberry ISD Teaching, Learning, and Innovation Team have pivoted their focus to ten back to school reentry strategies which will ensure the district is able to provide quality online academic lessons and resources for our students and families to ensure a smooth reentry to the new school year.
Beginning the year in a remote learning setting brings many challenges for our families and school employees; however, we feel that several major initiatives such as our Digital Equity 4 All, the One-to-One Student to Computer Initiative, and the utilization of Canvas as a district-wide Learning Management System ensures the district will be able to educate our students while they are in a safe place at home with their families.
The construction of the third and final student WiFi tower is now fully operational. By bringing the third and final WiFi tower online, the district has the ability to provide safe and filtered Internet to approximately 92% of the students living within the CISD school boundaries. Topology challenges has prevented the district from being able to connect approximately 8% of our students to any of the three WiFi towers. Therefore, the district is providing WiFi hotspots from AT&T to distribute to students who cannot connect to a district WiFi tower.
Currently, all CISD students enrolled in grades PK through 1st grades are issued an iPad while students in 2nd through 12th grades are issued either a Chromebook or a Windows device in which they may take home to complete assigned school work.
Visit the Remote Learning Technical Support page to view the website with information on where students will be able to pick up their school issued computers, routers to connect to the district's WiFi tower, or an AT&T hotspot.
Our goal is to ensure all students have access to a quality education whether they are learning at school or while they are learning at home.
Thanks for your patience and support as we prepare to provide your student with quality educational lessons and resources, so students can continue learning remotely from home.
Sincerely,
Renee Smith-Faulkner
Associate Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Innovation