Texas State Technical College has been working since March to be able to keep its doors open so students can learn in person, and that has meant making some changes on campus.
Chris Martin, director of governance, risk and compliance for TSTC, said the school has been working on getting students back in the classroom for months.
Martin said TSTC coordinated with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas State Department of Health Services.
TSTC worked on designing classrooms so they could accommodate students, including such precautions as social distancing markers, directional pathways to and from buildings, designated entrances and exits and physical barriers to help separate students as they work in lab environments.
Martin said TSTC had students back in class in May and had a successful summer semester.
Students are back on campus now for the fall semester, and he said the school is continuing to improve how they can keep everyone safe.
Martin said quite a few classes require students to be present.
To address that, Martin said TSTC has created hybrid options for classes so students can be on campus when needed, but not more than they have to be.
Martin said those classes have been successful.
“They’re wearing their face masks, they are maintaining their social distancing and they’re still able to do what they need to do in order to show proficiency in the skills they’re being taught,” Martin said.
He added it was important for them to bring students back in person so they are able to continue to train people for the workforce.
Martin said TSTC needed to be able to train people for the workforce, but had to do it in a way that kept everyone safe.
Martin said many of their students go on to fill roles that have been considered essential during the pandemic, which was another reason why it was important for them to stay open.
“And in order to do that, we had to have people that demonstrate capability in those skills, and that is something that we specialize in at Texas State Technical College,” Martin said.
Some classes have been moved completely online.
—KWTX
