Copperas Cove ISD receives PPE from the state prior to campuses reopening

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

With school districts across the state of Texas preparing to reopen campuses for the 2020-2021 school year, they face the task of helping keep students and staff safe and healthy from the COVID-19 virus.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has begun shipping pallets of hand sanitizer by the gallon, along with tens of thousands of disposable masks, reusable masks, gloves, thermometers, and face shields to school districts.

The TEA is providing and shipping the supplies at no cost to the school districts.

According to the TEA, it is distributing a total of 50,000,000 disposable masks for students and staff, 40,000 thermometers and 500,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, along with 10,000,000 gloves for school staff statewode. The PPE allotments were determined using on-campus students and staff counts from the 2019-20 school year.

During the last week of July, the Copperas Cove Independent School District received its share of personal protective equipment from the TEA to include masks, face shields, hand sanitizer and more prior the new school year.

The district has received a total of 77,408 disposable masks, to include 23,222 student-size masks and 54,185 adult-size masks.

Along with the disposable masks, CCISD has received 19,352 reusable masks for distribution, to include 5,375 student masks and 13,976 adult masks.

The district has also received 1,199 adult face shields, 40,776 disposable gloves, and 64 thermometers. Additionally, the district has received 911 gallons of hand sanitizer.

All of the PPE will be distributed at campuses throughout the district to be used when schools reopen for on-campus learning on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

All students and district staff are required to wear a face covering. Also, the use of hand sanitizer will be a regular practice on campus, for students boarding and leaving school buses, before and after meals and activities.