Yesterday, Monday, August 17, 2020, the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Austin Beutner, appeared in a 13-minute video on the LAUSD website, standing in front of a blank classroom chalkboard and laying out for families a somewhat complicated process for administering COVID tests to the Districts 700,000 students and 35,000 staff members — plus, also testing family members who show COVID symptoms. Exactly how a school district that — if we are honest about it — has a hard time merely providing a decent education to a student body that reportedly speaks 92 different languages at home, now expects to also become a public health agency for 700,000 kids… well, I find it all hard to imagine.
In the video, Superintendent Beutner appears somewhat fatigued, and not all that cheery about the start of a new school year.
Perhaps he’s portraying for us, without really intending to, just how challenging and draining the 2020-2021 school year is going to be in Los Angeles.
Also on Monday, August 17, Archuleta School District (ASD) Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza posted a letter clarifying the intentions of the district as families approach the first official day of classes: September 8. The Pagosa schools will thus have a couple of weeks to watch the progress in other school district such as LAUSD.
ASD’s planning process has been marked by roller coaster changes in apparent COVID infection rates in Colorado, as well as changes in recommendations coming from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE) and from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE).
The Superintendent’s letter to families and staff begins as follows:
Dear Staff and Families,
I want to thank all the many people who put time and energy into the process of developing our re-opening plan for the 2020-21 school year. It has taken countless hours of meetings with state and local health authorities, time spent pouring over the ever-changing guidelines, in-depth discussions around student and staff safety and time spent reading through the hundreds of survey comments from staff and parents. However, anything less than that effort would have left us short of honoring our community’s core values and our staff and students’ safety. We appreciate the thought and care that our full leadership team put into ensuring we built a plan that is in the best interest of students and staff.
We fully expect that we will need to transition in and out of the various models of instruction throughout the year, depending upon the health conditions and potential cases of COVID that could arise. However, based on the number of cases we have in our community, the Colorado Department of Education and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment guidance and the overwhelming belief of our families and our staff that it is in our students’ best interest to return to school, we will begin our school year on September 8, utilizing our Hybrid/Blended Learning model.
The ASD Hybrid/Blended Learning Model has students attending face-to-face two days a week, and logging in online for ‘remote learning’ three days a week. Students will be grouped in two cohorts, so only 50% of students will be present in the school building at a time.
Cohort A (Last Names A-L) will meet face-to-face on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Cohort B (Last Names M-Z) will meet face-to-face on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Friday will be a remote learning day for all students.
The decision to sort students by last names presumably ensures that all the kids in the same family are attending school on the same days and are at home with mom and/or dad on the same days. (If your kids happen to have different last names, I imagine the district will be happy to work with you.)
The District posted schedules for each school building (Elementary School, Middle School, High School, Family School, and Alternative High School) on this web page where can find details on the in-person daily schedule as well as what a student’s remote learning day will be like.
In the “Opening 2020-21” section on the ASD website, you can find the details of the plan including the various models of instruction, health and safety, how ASD will use ‘Schoology’ for teaching and learning, and answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
From the Superintendent’s letter:
We recognize that there will be families and staff that are thrilled with our decision to return to school in-person, through our hybrid/blended model of instruction and there will also be those that will be disappointed we are not starting fully online. We will work with and support families that make the choice of ‘fully online’ for their child(ren). CDLS is a strong program and it will support those families well.
CDLS is the Colorado Digital Learning Solutions program, which is available only to children who are enrolled in a Colorado public school.From their website:
Colorado Digital Learning Solutions (CDLS), a 501(c)3 non-profit, has been awarded a statewide contract as the state supported provider of supplemental coursework for Colorado students. Monies for this contract was appropriated in the CRS 22-5-119 legislation to support districts, BOCES, and charter schools. And, the goal of CDLS is to use these funds to build a sound, self-sustaining supplemental model for students and schools in Colorado… Through this contract, CDLS will provide expanded supplemental course offerings for middle and high school to support credit retrieval, credit advancement, and curriculum enhancement options for Colorado students…
CDLS online courses are NOT easier than face-to-face courses. You will need to complete similar activities and take tests like you would in a classroom. PLUS you will need to manage your time to be sure you complete the online activities on time. You wouldn’t see a teacher every day who will remind you when things are due. However, you will have a site coordinator that will be available at your school to support you.
CDLS courses are NOT less time intensive than a course you take at your school. So you will not spend less time taking CDLS online courses, however you’ll be organizing your time differently…
The CDLS website suggests that a Pagosa student using the system will not be interacting regularly with a local teacher, but possibly with a teacher located in a city far away. This might result in a quite different social dynamic than what students are accustomed to… especially, perhaps, in the younger grades.
The conclusion of the Superintendent LeBlanc-Esparza’s letter:
I assure you that no part of this decision was taken lightly and we commit to doing all we can to provide the necessary resources, tools and systems to support safe environments for students and staff. We will also continue to communicate openly with staff about what they feel they need to do their jobs successfully. Again, we appreciate everyone’s input and support as we navigate the start of the 2020-21 school year. I am confident that we will “Safely Open Archuleta Schools Together!”
Respectfully,
Kym
I could find no indication in the current ASD documents, that the Pagosa district will make an attempt to test all of its 1,600 students, 200 staff or related family members.