BEAUMONT, Texas — Little Cypress-Mauriceville CISD & East Chambers ISD are two districts in Southeast Texas with two weeks left before school starts.
Administrators told 12News on Monday they're eager to see put their plans in motion. how their plans hold up.
"Today is the first day back on contract," LCM superintendent Stacey Brister said.
On Monday, teachers at LCM CISD got their first look inside classrooms.
Brister says giving them extra time to plan both in-class and virtual learning played a big factor in pushing back the start date to from August 6 to August 17.
"A lot of that had to do with giving teachers the ability to plan," Brister said.
Meanwhile over in Winnie, East chambers ISD superintendent Scott Campbell says the district is finalizing registration numbers, so they can best follow CDC and TEA guidelines.
"Analyze the data from our staff and parent surveys to find the best balanced approach," Campbell said.
On Monday, Bridge City ISD became the first Southeast Texas district to return to the classroom.
Yet, the head of the Texas State Teachers Association says it's too soon.
"We know that the calendar says it is 'back to school' time, but the problem is the pandemic isn't following any type of regular calendar," TSTA president Ovidia Molina said. "When you say that you have four or eight weeks, you're still giving a timeline to something that has no timeline."
RELATED: East Chambers ISD pushes safety measures after CDC warns of possible coronavirus spread in U.S.
She says state officials are not acting like safety of children and staff are their top priority.
"The reason we need reassurance is because we don't feel safe, you're not listening to us. We are very fearful that we are going to lose a coworker or somebody's family member," Molina told 12News.
Districts across the area are seeing a variety of responses when it comes to families choosing their education for the 2020-21 school year.
At LCM, here are the percentages of students choosing the virtual option:
- 12-14 percent at high school
- 25-28 percent at middle school
- Up to 30 percent at elementary campuses
"We also think that will vary when school returns," Brister said. "We're going to have parents wait and see how the operations take place, are kids safe."
The numbers are similar at East Chambers ISD with 65 percent of students thus far choosing to learn inside the classroom.
"They don't ask 'do we have to?'" Campbell said in reference to his students mindset. "They want to come back."
In fact, he said watching most of them work during this pandemic in the summer makes him confident these boys and girls will have no issue with the measures in place.
"They've inspired me this summer watching them at their jobs, never wavering," Campbell said.
He adds it will take everyone; teachers, parents and students to do their part for these plans to work.
"In order for this to be successful, we need cooperation," Campbell said.
Brister says the biggest concern for parents at LCM isn't necessarily the curriculum but day-to-day operations for students who are going back to school.
"What type of masks can they wear, will there be time they can pull it down, how will recess look, are they going to be in eating in the cafeteria, are they going to continue going to play on the playground?" Brister referenced in listing questions parents have brought up since plans were released.
However, going back to school period is still a problem for Molina.
"You're no longer talking about returning when it's safe, you're talking about returning because you're going to need the funding to keep the schools open," Molina said.