Fort Worth ISD starts online with minor challenges, could reopen schools sooner than expected

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth ISD experienced some minor technical challenges on its first day of virtual learning of the new school year.

FWISD posted about issues with its web platform vendor on its social media channels on Tuesday.

Mom Ana Gonzalez said a minor technical glitch was easy to overcome for her son, second grader Nico Gonzalez.

“They sent a little link and I messaged back and said, ‘Hey is Nico my son on there? Is everything OK? Connected?’ He said yes we’re connected everything is good,’” Gonzalez said.

Paschal High School tenth grader Julian Minor also had minor glitches from home.

“It was a super simple solution,” said dad Bobby Minor. “He logged on to Remind, sent his teacher a message through Remind. She sent him back the code to get in and it was solved.”

FWISD said in social media posts on Tuesday: “Until an hour ago, Fort Worth ISD's website experienced a slow charge or a failure to charge… This issue is being investigated by our web service provider.”

FWISD spokesman Clint Bond said attempting to access the webpage resulted in an error message.

“They got on it pretty quick,” Bond said.

Some frustrated parents vented via Facebook and Twitter. The school district says the technical issue was a hurdle, but overall the first day back met administrators’ expectations. FWISD made thousands of laptops and hotspots available to students.

Officials said about 76,000 FWISD students logged on, close to 90 percent of those the district expected to.

“We are still registering students,” Bond said. “We have about 92 percent of the anticipated 83,000 students that we are looking for. That’s 7,000 more students today on the first day of school then we had last year.”

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If all goes well, the district might welcome students back to school earlier than planned.

Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner has said he would like students to return to the classrooms as soon as possible. But he wants to do so in a way that will allow schools to safely remain open.

The current plan is to have students learn remotely for the first four weeks of the semester. In-person learning would start on Oct. 5.

But it’s possible that could change if coronavirus cases in Tarrant County continue to trend downward even after Labor Day.

The school board is set to discuss a timeline for reopening schools next week. The district is watching to see if there is a spike in COVID-19 cases because of the holiday weekend.