For the first time, parents now know how individual TISD schools are handling COVID-19. As of last week, Dec. 6, 2020, Tyler ISD has had 409 COVID-19 cases. Two hundred forty six were students, and 163 were staff. Below are listed the safest and worst campuses for COVID-19.
Tyler ISD releases no COVID-19 information publicly except for noting the days when at least one — but perhaps more — cases are reported on each campus. This information rolls off its website after two weeks, so it’s not easy to understand which schools are succeeding at keeping COVID-19 at bay.
TISD is, however, required to report more detailed information to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Recently, DSHS revamped its website to publicly report COVID-19 statistics by individual campus.
To figure out how individual campuses are doing, the Tyler Loop divided the total cases by the campus population in a process similar to our Community Spread score but for totals rather than a weekly summary. This allows campuses to be compared even when they are different sizes.
Tyler ISD’s top COVID-safe campuses
| Campus | Pos Students | Pos Staff | Pos Total | Population Adjusted Score | Principal | |
| 1 | Dixie Elementary | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.0031 | Kimberly Simmons |
| 2 | Hogg Middle | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.0054 | Kristen Walls |
| 3 | Woods Elementary | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.0054 | Georgeanna Jones |
| 4 | Rice Elementary | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.0058 | Shelly Bosley |
| 5 | Owens Elementary | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0.0070 | Rachel Sherman |
Tyler ISD’s least safe campuses
| Campus | Pos Students | Pos Staff | Pos Total | Population Adjusted Score | Principal | |
| 23 | Birdwell Dual Language Immersion School | 6 | 6 | 12 | 0.0256 | Bethany Moody |
| 24 | Moore MST Magnet School | 21 | 7 | 28 | 0.0267 | Aubrey Ballard |
| 25 | Ramey Elementary School | 6 | 10 | 16 | 0.0284 | Mina Naranjo |
| 26 | Tyler Legacy High School | 67 | 10 | 77 | 0.0335 | Dan Crawford |
| 27 | Tyler High School | 54 | 17 | 71 | 0.0337 | Claude Lane |
As a general statement, the high schools are showing sustained transmission approaching large scale uncontrolled transmission. The middle schools and elementary schools are more of a mixed bag with dramatic differences between campuses. Ramey Elementary has over nine times the transmission rate of Dixie Elementary.
As previously reported, a reasonable characterization would be that TISD approximately mirrors the population of Tyler from which it is drawn. This is consistent with both national and state trends.
This data is as of Dec. 6, 2020. According to TISD’s website, many campuses had multiple days last week with COVID-19 cases on campus. The state data is preliminary and open to change. It is updated weekly for the previous week, keeping data availability one week behind.
Stephen Fierbaugh is The Tyler Loop’s director of informatics. He was lead IT Project Manager for a large hospital ship being built in China. Now, he’s looking for new places to serve. Are these statistics helpful? Would you like to see similar information for your city or organization? Stephen has his Masters in Intercultural Studies with a focus on ICT4D (technology) and is PMI certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP). Check out his LinkedIn for more examples of his skills and experience.
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