TEA providing school districts with PPE

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) -

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is shipping PPE to school districts across the state to help keep staff and students safe this upcoming school year.

TEA will be providing school districts with disposable and reusable masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, thermometers, face shields, and desk dividers. The amount of supply will vary on the district’s size and need. TEA plans to start delivering supplies mid-July to early August.

“Superintendents are going to be getting a survey from TEA pretty soon and on that survey, they’re going to be asked, essentially to confirm, ‘Do you need this much? Do you need more? Do you need less?’,” said Matthew LeBlanc, Bryan ISD Director of Communications.

Bryan and College Station ISD say they've been purchasing supplies on their own for some time now.

“A big part of that operational preparedness is to keep folks as safe as we can and that includes the use of personal protective equipment,” said Chuck Glenewinkel, CSISD Director of Communications.

LeBlanc says they were collecting supplies in case students and staff returned before the end of the year.

“We wanted to make sure that we had enough that we could keep everyone healthy and safe that were coming into our buildings whenever it was time to allow more people in. so we did as a district thinking ahead, trying to be prepared we started purchasing a lot of the PPE items ourselves,” said LeBlanc.

Both Bryan and College Station ISD say they’re preparing for whatever the coming school year could look like.

“It’s still up in the air but that doesn’t mean we as a school district can’t be planning for whatever scenario might be presented to us,” said Glenewinkel.

“Whoever’s in our building is going to have all of the tools necessary to stay as healthy and safe as possible,” said LeBlanc.

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