In-Person School Could Start in a Few Weeks for El Paso Area

The COVID number in the Borderland are mostly trending in the right direction. Of course, that could all change quickly if we get a spike from New Years. The hospitalization rate in El Paso is down below 20 percent for more than a week. In a recent meeting between school officials and health officials, the three districts chose to keep classes online for now, but they could start phasing in in-person classes towards the end of the month.

City/County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza said that schools should not look to have students return to school until at least the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, which is January 18th. This is to ensure that there isn't a big spike caused by the Christmas and New Years holidays.

YISD Superintendent Xavier De La Torre said:

The health and safety of our employees, students, and community remains our top priority. We will continue to work with our local health authority to ensure we can resume classes in person under safe conditions.

Even if the schools start to open up, parents won't be forced to have their kids head back to school. Online learning will still be available. My fear in all of this is that since the vaccines have started to roll our, people won't be taken this situation as seriously as they need to. They think we're out of the woods when it comes to COVID-19 simply because the vaccine has started to be administered. We aren't out of the woods though. We have to patient just a bit longer to completely get through this.