November 2021
Greetings LISD Family and Staff,
In just a few weeks we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day with our loved ones. I have so much for which to be grateful this semester including the fact that we have more than 19,550 students enrolled in our schools and attending classes in person. We love having our children back in class, hearing their voices, answering their questions, and watching them grow up to become our community’s future leaders. I am delighted to cheer and support our athletes, bands, dance teams, cheerleaders, and any youngsters participating in extracurricular activities. It’s definitely one of the perks of serving as your Superintendent of Schools.
LISD has much to celebrate these days. It appears as if we are on the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of cases keeps going down, and for that I am most thankful. So many LISD employees worked diligently to make sure that our schools were safe, sanitized several times a day, and that eligible students and staff were provided with a COVID vaccine.
Our Health Services Department continues scheduling COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. If you haven’t already, I urge you to get your vaccine soon and help us keep our school community safe. While the number of cases keeps decreasing, we are not completely out of the woods yet. We strongly recommend that all of our staff, students, and visitors wear their face coverings.
In the meantime, LISD students and staff are encouraged to get screened for COVID-19. LISD offers both PCR and Binax testing with results available in 15 minutes at most of our LISD campuses.
Another group of individuals who have worked tirelessly to protect the health and safety of everyone in their learning communities are LISD’scampus principals and directors. These leaders rolled up their sleeves with little or rapidly changing guidance. With every new challenge, they rose to the occasion and led their schools boldly through school closings, campus re-openings, virtual instruction, social distancing, and vaccine clinics for students and staff.
As we near the end of the Fall Semester, LISD remains true to its mission in preparing “students to be highly successful, critical thinkers and effective problem solvers who are confident, self-motivated, and actively involved in our local and global community.” Through our many comprehensive programs and extracurricular activities, our staff is dedicated to helping our students reach their full potential.
Our next challenge lies in the administration of the upcoming End-of-Course high school exams scheduled for early December. We encourage our students to attend afternoon and Saturday tutorials to prepare for these state graduation requirements. Please visit with school counselors for additional information regarding these opportunities.
Together we have achieved so much, and I am excited to see how much more we can accomplish for our children in the months to come.
Best always,
Dr. Sylvia G. Rios
LISD Superintendent of Schools