Gov. Greg Abbott extended the suspension of all in-person classes for public schools on Tuesday until May 4 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, prolonging the Frisco ISD eLearning program for another four weeks. 

The FISD Board of Trustees held its first virtual special school board meeting online Wednesday morning, discussing what this extension means for the district’s students, teachers, and families. 

“We have worked really hard to provide as best we can a sense of normalcy to our families and students as we understand this eLearning platform is new to everybody: adminstors, teachers, students, and families,” Chief Academic Officer Dr. Wes Cunningham said during the meeting. “We have worked to ensure that students have the opportunity to be exposed to essential standards within their content areas with a significant amount of support so that students are able to complete this school year successfully and are prepared to do what’s next for them.”

Among other topics discussed, the Board of Trustees also talked about the postponement of the general election for Places 4 and 5 on the school board from May 2 to Nov. 3. 

Place 7 board member René Archambault worries that a board member election at the same time as a presidential election will hurt local candidates. 

“I appreciate the fact that we’re coming together to try to pull for a special election,” Archambault said. “Being a recently elected board member over the last couple of years, I can’t imagine the burden on local candidates that a Nov. election would actually cause. I worry about nonpartisan positions being on a partisan ballot and being able to move the needle on telling votes about your platforms and positions. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to work with the Governor’s office to move this election to a time that is more reasonable for local offices.”  

But President of the Board of Trustees Chad Rudy assured the board that district leaders are working with Abbott to find a closer election date than Nov. 

“We are working actively right now with the governor to try to find an alternative election date prior to the Nov. election,” Rudy said. “We’re working for some sort of a special election that we’re requesting to happen sometime before then.”

The entire April 1, 2020 Special Board of Trustees meeting can be found here.