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McBurnett
Burnet Consolidated Independent School District has faced many educational challenges in the past year from the COVID-19 pandemic and has responded admirably, Superintendent Keith McBurnett said last Wednesday, March 3, during his virtual State of the District address.
McBurnett noted he gave his last State of the District address on March 3, in person, as part of the traditional State of the Community event held cooperatively with the City of Burnet, where the mayor gives a State of the City address as well.
“Little did I know nine days later on Friday, March 13, would be the last day of in-person learning for the 2019-2020 school year and it was not lost on me that it was a Friday the 13th,” McBurnett said. “That next week was after that, our district went to work, making sure we were ready to continue to serve students, even if our buildings were physically closed.”
McBurnett said educational teams engaged in both online remote with access as well as paper packet remote instruction for those who did not have online access. The district offered hundreds of Grab and Go Meals throughout the district at several locations to make sure students were nourished and ready to learn.
The district also worked to preserve some of the important milestone events that mark being a senior, including the senior parade and graduation ceremonies.
“Being a senior in the year 2020 was pretty challenging. Being a student in the year 2020 was pretty challenging,” McBurnett said. “There were a lot of things we weren’t able to do due to COVID protocol. During a time when a lot of school districts were canceling all in-person events, our school district really stepped up and, to the greatest extent possible, we did those capstone events for our students to make that senior year special. We knew it was important to our students to walk across that stage.”
During the summer, the district worked to finalize its remote instructional criteria and to formalize health guidelines so they could return to in-person learning for the first time since March.
“Unfortunately, the TEA didn’t release all of their formal health guidelines or remote instruction criteria we needed to use to get our plan approved until July 17,” McBurnett said. “Literally, in a month’s time, our team put together a remote instruction plan that was approved by the TEA. Our district was one of the first districts in the state to have our plan approved and to put together comprehensive COVID protocols.
“We think we put together an outstanding plan which allowed a parent to have a choice from day one of instructionperson in-or remote instruction and I think our numbers show we’ve done it in a safe way,” McBurnett added.
McBurnett said the district spent more than $750,000 on COVID-19-related expenses, including purchasing Chromebooks and hotspots; plexiglas dividers; facial tissues; hand sanitizers; disinfectant wipes; face shields; neck gaiters and face masks. The district also approved paid leave for teachers affected by COVID-19 to mitigate the possibility of COVID spread taking place on campus.
“There is a little bit of a misnomer that the district is being reimbursed for all of those expenses, but that is not the case,” McBurnett said. “We didn’t receive any additional funding from the state or federal government.
“When we went into emergency closure, we were not earning our attendance credits that we normally receive, but with the CARES Act, the state chose to continue to fund us during that closure. For that, we were very appreciative, but it didn’t result in any additional funding, though COVID did result in additional expenditures to our operating budget.”
Since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, Burnet has had a confirmed 98 cases of COVID among students and staff and 268 close contact determinations.
“When a student or staff member is COVID positive, we are required to do contact tracing to find out who was close to that person,” McBurnett said. “Almost in every one of those situations, it was a situation in which face coverings were not required, so that resulted in students being quarantined for 14 days in the first semester, and now, with CDC guidelines changing, up to 10 days this semester. There have been really few instances of transmission taking place at school with the COVID protocols we have in place.”
At the beginning of the school year in August, 80 percent of students attended school in-person, while 20 percent were remote learners. As of March 1, 2021, 92 percent of students are now attending school in person, while just 8 percent remain in remote learning.
“I will tell you our goal for next year is to have 100 percent of our students be in-person learners,”McBurnett said. “We are waiting for guidance from the TEA on any requirements to providing remote instruction beyond the school year and what is funded and what is not, but our goal is to offer 100 percent in-person instructoin because we believe that is the best for our students.”
McBurnett was effusive in his praise of school district employees, especially the teachers.
“Our teachers are superheroes,” he said. “When you say you are offering both in-person and remote learning, someone has to manage that, and I cannot tell you how proud I am of our teaching staff and that they are taking care of instructional needs of our students, but they are also taking care of the social and emotional needs of our students. They are to be applauded.”
Burnet CISD has shown its support for the “critical component” that teachers make up in the school system by “paying them at a level that we lead the market,” McBurnett said.
“At the same time, we are able to have the second-lowest tax rate among area school districts,” he added. “That didn’t happen by accident. We are very proud and it has been a goal of ours to be able to lower that tax rate and have the lowest tax rate possible while also maintaining outstanding programs and making sure we have that market-leading compensation for our staff.”
For the 2020-21 school year, the district has 3,090 students taking part in instructional learning, which is down 100 from the previous year and is attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic as some parents opted not to return their kids to school.
The district has 515 total employees, including 221 teachers, and an annual budget of $34 million The food service department serves 3,300 meals daily and the transportation department drives 3,650 miles daily to support the district’s instructional mission.
McBurnett said the district has received a letter grade of B for academic accountability and an A for financial accountability. The high school graduation rate is 96 percent, with 97 percent of high school students enrolled in some form of Career and Technicial Education (cm. Last year, students earned 1,580 college-credit hours in high school.
“Not only are we preparing students for college, but we are also preparing them for the world of work and the workforce up ahead,” McBurnett said.
