Launch to Learning 2020-21 updates are ongoing and subject to change as we continue to navigate opening the 2020-21 school year in Leander ISD. Please visit this article for the latest FAQs and information.

Leander ISD continues planning, seeking feedback from our community, guidelines from our local, state and federal health officials, and direction from our Board of Trustees to ensure a safe launch into learning this fall. We are committed to keeping families informed with updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

In this update, you will find information on:

Launch to Learning Update #5 will be sent Tuesday, July 14.

Frequently Asked Questions

A huge shout out to our families and staff for all the thoughtful questions and wonderings submitted in the last few weeks. We have compiled and posted more than 40 questions and answers on our Launch to Learning webpage under four subcategories:

  • Student and Staff Health, 
  • Classroom and Campus Safety,
  • Social Distancing, and
  • Virtual Empowered Learning

We understand there are far more questions to be answered and we will continue to seek feedback and guidance to help support our families and staff in this uncertain time.

Virtual ‘Launch to Learning’ Webinars  

Leander ISD and its leadership team hosted three webinars this week focused on transparency and priorities as we prepare for the 2020-2021 academic year. With over 3,000 questions coming into the district over the past few days, the information helped provide our employees and families with the key points guiding decisions. Recordings of the webinars can be found here: Launch to Learning 2020-21 School Year webinars:

“Things are changing at an extremely fast pace,” Leander ISD Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D. said during one of the webinars. “The purpose of this discussion is how to bring staff and kids back in the safest way possible while delivering high-quality education parents and students expect.”

After a 30-minute presentation that included Texas Education Agency expectations and health guidelines and an overview of Virtual Empowered Learning, district leadership provided responses to concerns ranging from contact tracing and personal protective equipment (PPE) to concerns about employee sick time and classroom logistics. Staff also had the chance to hear how teachers will be chosen if they preferred to teach students opting for 100% remote learning. 

“Everybody has to find their comfort level for a risk for exposure,” Dr. Gearing said. “That is a personal decision. We’re here to serve the community as best we can given the circumstances that we have. We are offering 100% in-person school. We are going to offer a 100% virtual environment. We urge families to consider that carefully, but it is a personal decision.”

Due to time constraints, unanswered questions will help us create a robust FAQ section on our website.

mLISD for Secondary Students

We are working to transform learning experiences for our sixth through 12th-grade students so that all students are afforded every available option to perform well in their classes and ultimately graduate. Our goal is to provide students with increased access to digital content, resources, and devices to support learning anytime, anywhere. The mLISD program has been specifically created to make the best use of our resources in order to support student engagement in learning. Click here for more information about how we intend to use mLISD to benefit our secondary students this coming year.