Thank you all for being the best community of parents and educators in the world. I experienced something this weekend I hadn't experienced in a long time. That experience was community togetherness. We witnessed over 50 volunteers come to help with our school gardens, community gardens, and planting trees. I would also like to say thank you for listening to our recommendation to partake in remote learning. We expected 174 students to enter our school this week, but after our announcement we saw only 13 students by Friday.

Kealing Middle School is still open for on campus learning for any student that needs our services. Having such a small amount of students in the building enables us to create an even safer environment for our learners that need the on campus environment. Thank you again. We look forward to Middle of the Year testing in the coming weeks. This will give us an opportunity to see how well our students have learned the first 18 weeks of standards in core areas. We encourage you all to continue partaking in remote learning this upcoming week. Thank you all for all of your support and have a great week!

Yesterday the MLK Day of Service organized by the PTA* and Mrs. Bergman was a huge success! See attached pics for more photos of the GREAT times had, the abundance of hard-working helpers, and safety measures (fully masked, personal tools, family units working together). * Special kudos to PTA Chair Angie Bealko, mom to Owen Huels - an amazing worker and community creator!

More information about the pics above:

• community member Clinton Scroggins who helped the Butterfly garden pathway (he's making a documentary about East Austin),
• LASA seniors Romi K & Lena who gave back to Kealing by planting a tree,
• Mr. Wilson, his son Adison and fiancee Lohgan,
• the Vidal family including the fluffiest dog on Earth,
• Claire M and mom shoveling mulch,
• Sadie S & Iris B-T triumphant atop the mulch pile

Hope to see colleagues at the garden tomorrow! Email, call or TEAMS me with questions.

Thanks,

Mr. Mansolo

Dear Austin ISD Community,

In order to be proactive and offer additional testing resources to our students and staff, Austin ISD will be offering mass COVID-19 testing once per week while we are in Stage 5 in Austin/Travis County.

We are also excited to announce that rapid tests (for mass testing events only) are now available to ALL Austin ISD students and staff, which includes those who learn and work in-person and remotely.

January Dates and Times

• Thursday, Jan. 21 from 8:30 am-5:30 pm
• Friday, Jan. 29 from 9:00 am-3:00 pm (district asynchronous day)

Locations (for both days)

• North: Northeast Early College High School (Nelson Field) 7105 Berkman Dr. Austin, TX 78752
• South: Austin ISD Central Office 4000 S. IH-35 Austin, TX 78704

Registration

Participants must register to be guaranteed testing. REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/mv9ScYqSTftJiPP76

Items to Bring to Your Testing Appointment

• Austin ISD ID or Badge
• Completed Consent Form
• QR Code from Pre-Registering Online (not required, but strongly encouraged to help decrease wait times): https://register.txrapidtest.org/

Additional information

If you are unable to make either date listed above, or if you have non-AISD family members who wish to access testing, we encourage you to contact your primary care provider or schedule an appointment through Austin Public Health: https://www.austintexas.gov/covid-testinfo