641 Now this is a big day for kids and
Bernie ISD thousand of them the teachers
heading back to school this morning.
Yeah, so, of course the school year
brings changes and understandably so many
questions for a lot of your families.
Audrey is live right now at her filamentary
school, Audrey. Are there any
students already on campus?
No, we haven't seen any students here
at her elementary here in Bernie ISD,
but it is an exciting day as
they head back to the classroom
for this 2021-2022 school year.
Of course, a lot of changes,
so we want to speak to Brian Benway,
the director of communications
here with Bernie ISD.
Good morning, good morning,
Audrey, happy first day of school,
her and Bernie is happy 1st day.
So how excited are you?
And all the staff to get ready
and to get back to school the
first day of school.
There's always a holiday.
It's a celebration of all the
hard work that students and
staff had put in from the time
school ended in May until today.
And when we've walked around
our schools the last week or
so with our administration and
our teachers getting ready,
the excitement is palpable.
Everybody is ready to go.
The morale is high and we can't wait
to see students getting off the bus.
Parents dropping them off.
It's one of those days that you circle
on your calendar because it's very
memorable and we're very excited.
For what this new year will
bring here in Burney
ISD, absolutely and you know, of course,
COVID is still on the minds of everyone.
Are there any big changes within the district
with the Delta variant ramping up right
now? So when you go all the way
back to May 17th, that's when us.
As a district announced that masks
would be optional for this school
year and throughout the whole summer.
We haven't changed.
Our schools have never been cleaner.
UCR custodians are maintenance
workers doing just a fantastic job.
And of course,
there's going to be a lot of time for.
Hand sanitizing hand washing
social distancing when you can.
Doing our best to do that but at
the end of the day it's all about
making sure that our students,
parents and staff feel safe and as we walk
around schools as we talked to parents,
everybody knows that this is the
hand that we've been dealt through.
No matter whose fault of it is.
But we're ready to go and everybody
feels safe and we're just excited to
bring them here so we don't like to
focus on mask mandates or vaccines.
We focus on educating our kids and
today is a great start to that.
And of course,
safety is top priority and we feel that
our staff does a great job at making
sure that happens well with
everything going on in San Antonio.
Bear County, you know they are challenging
the governor's a non man mask mandates.
Are there any talk about changes
within Bernie IC or within the
county to change any of that?
I don't think any of your schools are in Bear
County. We actually have two schools
in Bear County Van, Rob Elementary.
And Fair Oaks Ranch Elementary
and so right now because we got
the order so late yesterday.
We're reviewing it with our attorneys
because we sit at the very edge of
those two schools in Bear County and
so today we're going on as what we
typically plan to do here in Kendall
County where other ten schools are.
There's no change,
and so we want to make sure that
we do the best we can for safety.
And as we go along today, you'll see,
you know, being in two counties,
it's a little bit different,
so we're not sure entirely where we stand,
but at the end of the day.
Our number one priority is safety
and our second is educating our
kids and making sure that they
have a fantastic school experience.
And that's what today is all about.
It's that celebration.
It's about bringing everybody together
and it's about starting the new
school year on a very high note.
And with
those parents who have students in,
you know, those two schools
that lie in Bear County.
You know a lot of people may not know that.
What should they lookout for?
Should they look out for
anything from the district about
any changes coming or or not?
So we're very proactive with our parents.
We sent out messaging to those two
schools into those two families last
night via text message and email,
and it basically said the same
thing that I told you just now is
we will stick to our original plan
while we search it out with lawyers
and see what it means for us.
But and we've gotten some great
feedback from our parents,
'cause here I'm burning,
we believe in the choice of optional
and we want to make sure that we're
able to do that just so if you
remember a year ago we were fighting
to keep those two schools open.
He did it and this year we're
going to work for our parents and
our students for this as well,
because that's what we are here for.
We work for them and we're excited for them,
and so they know the information
and they're they're ready.
And.
And so are we
great. Well thank you so much.
Brian Benway with the Bernie ISD very
exciting day here in Burney guys,
we're going to send it back to you.
The kiddos are going to start
arriving here around 7:30.