The school bells are ringing in a few North Texas school districts on Monday.
The fifth-largest school district across our region – Garland ISD – is among the earliest to welcome kids back to class. GISD has over 55,000 students attending 71 schools.
"It's a fun and nervous feeling. We are so excited to welcome the students. They're anxious to learn. They love their teachers. And I think they were just ready, so we're super excited to bring them back and get the year going,” said Caldwell Elementary School principal Victoria Sanchez.
Parents and teachers have longed for a sense of normalcy over the last two years since the pandemic. Sanchez said she believes this will the year to find that.
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“It’s definitely better to be able to have all the activities, all the engagement, just being present and being able to do that one-on-one with parents and with children,” she said.
Fist bumps and masks are still part of the reality in schools right now. But breakfast time, group activities, and hugs from teachers are very much making a comeback going into the third big school year since the pandemic.
"We've overcome the COVID years and kind of bringing things back to normal. So now it's time to step it up,” said Sanchez.
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Garland ISD also welcoming a new district chef, Kevin Jenkins. He's helping to roll out new healthy strawberry smoothies on the menu at all district middle schools. It's already available at the high schools.
The district is also looking to revamp the lunch menus in the future with some plant-forward diets and other ideas in the works.
“We have a partnership with Kikkoman this year. They’ve been developing recipes which are sort of a fusion – so we’re looking at sort of an Asian Mexican fusion in a couple of them,” said said Jennifer Miller, Garland ISD Student Nutrition Services director. “That’s really fascinating because it’s really a blending of flavors now,”
Other districts going back to class this week:
Tuesday, Aug. 9:
Mesquite ISD
Wednesday, Aug. 10:
Plano ISD
Frisco ISD
Lewisville ISD
Allen ISD
Thursday, Aug. 11
Denton ISD
Forney ISD
Waxahachie ISD
Crowley ISD
Little Elm ISD
Wylie ISD
Monday, Aug. 15
Dallas ISD (final wave)
Fort Worth ISD
Arlington ISD
Grand Prairie ISD
Irving ISD
DeSoto ISD
Red Oak ISD
Tuesday, Aug. 16
Richardson ISD
Granbury ISD
Wednesday, Aug. 17
Mansfield ISD
Grapevine/Colleyville ISD
Keller ISD
Birdville ISD
Coppell ISD
Burleson ISD
Aledo ISD
Weatherford ISD
