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While COVID-19 remains a hot topic within the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), one public charter school network is looking to hire a position specifically dedicated to helping campuses navigate the virus.
IDEA Public Schools — a charter school network with four campuses in Tarrant County — announced that it plans to hire a "health and safety monitor" for each Texas location, including IDEA Rise, IDEA Southeast, and IDEA Edgecliff in Fort Worth, along with IDEA Achieve in Haltom City.
According to IDEA Public Schools, the position will "conduct contact tracing when there is a positive COVID-19 case, communicate with families of impacted students, and share quarantine recommendations and learning options. They will also support COVID-19 testing of symptomatic students and staff on campus, supervise the containment room as needed, and perform other related health and safety supports and audits."
Funding for the position comes from the school network's Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, authorized by the IDEA Public Schools Board of Directors. Each Texas campus will have one health and safety monitor for the 2021 – 2022 school year.
Additionally, IDEA Public Schools will continue offering COVID-19 tests, reporting that it has administered over 23,000 tests to students and staff since the program's launch in November.
The hiring of a health and safety monitor comes as FWISD grapples with a lawsuit over the enforcement of a mask mandate — a mandate that goes against Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order stating that school districts cannot require face coverings. Neither the district nor IDEA Public Schools are currently enforcing masks at their campuses, though it's "encouraged" at both entities.
“As COVID-19 continues to be a looming threat in our community and across our state, IDEA is deploying every option possible to ensure the health and wellbeing of our students, families, teachers, and staff,” Ana Shropshire, executive director of IDEA Tarrant County, said in a statement. “The safety of our IDEA students is always our top priority, and we are hopeful that this new position will allow for a better in-person educational environment, especially in the midst of a pandemic.”
An outline of IDEA Public Schools' COVID-19 protocols and more information are available here.
