School districts across North Texas have either already welcomed students back to campus or are preparing to do so in the near future.
In Mesquite ISD students won’t return until Sept. 14, but school nurses have been busy preparing over the summer.
“It’s unchartered for all of us and everyone is really looking to us to have answers and looking to us to protect everyone,” MISD Director of Health Services Macey Dossey said. “We are making protocols for basically every single area in our district.”
Dossey said the district is following guidance from the governor’s office, Dallas County health officials, Texas Education Agency and the CDC.
“If we don’t follow the guidance that is given to us, we’re never going to be able to go forward. We’re always going to be backtracking,” Dossey said. “When we go back into school, we want to be able to stay in school.”
“I think I’m ready,” 23-year school nurse Cindie Dillard said. “We signed on as nurses to take care of people. That is our job. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have some underlying fears about certain things, but that is what we signed on as nurses.”
MISD serves 40,000 students and only hire registered nurses. There is at least one nurse at every school.
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“A lot of times we just get the stigma that we just put ‘boo boos’ and ice packs on things and send everyone back to class, but we are community health workers,” Dossey said.
