AUSTIN, Texas — Austin ISD employee Seglinda Orozco has been answering questions from parents with COVID-19 concerns.
As a parent support specialist, it’s her job to go over the district’s policies regarding masks, vaccinated versus unvaccinated kids, virtual learning and everything else that’s become a reality during this global pandemic.
“Right now we’re receiving a lot of concerns and calls from parents,” Orozco said. “We’re going in person, but we’re also giving the option to go virtual.”
As a mother of nine-year-old AISD student Grecia Orozco, now old enough to enter the fourth grade, but too young for a vaccine right now, she can’t help but share the same concerns. As the delta variant drove case numbers back up to dangerous levels, she believes this year will be a repeat of last year.
“I’m pretty sure we’re going to be the same,” Seglinda Orozco said. “Infections are going to be high and we’re gonna be in person, but then probably we’re gonna come back home and we’ll need to live with that.”
She often points parents to AISD’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page, which has been loaded with questions and answers regarding the virus. She’s also facilitated virtual and telephone meetings between parents, teachers and support staff at schools to answer some of those concerns more directly. She said the district has figured out how to make access to those resources and connections easier for the parents who really need it.
“Past years when we had meetings with the communities and some families, they’re not able to come to the campus because they work,” Orozco said. “When we start doing the Zoom meetings and had that option for the families, we were able to connect with those families.”
Last year, Orozco and young Grecia were able to make virtual learning work. Since they preferred going to school, making the transition back and forth between the classroom and virtual was difficult, but not overwhelming. Still, she said she understands how the unknowns of the new school year is making planning difficult for the parents she serves.
“I feel them,” she said. “There are questions that probably we’d never think about it. There are questions that pop up from parents with a different perspective that we wanted to know, too. And we’ll try to get that answer for them and post it on the website.”
You can learn more about Austin ISD’s approach to COVID-19 and the new school year by visiting AustinISD.org/reconnect.