DeKalb County School District Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson sat at a far corner of a conference room table Friday morning, seeking updates from 20 other district leaders assembled as they continue developing a educate-from-home plan forced into being by the coronavirus.
It is a meeting with which they have become familiar, as COVID-19 fears elevated from caution to widespread panic when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic and business leaders and government officials began telling people to stay home.
Metro Atlanta Schools announced Thursday they would close school buildings and take learning completely online, hoping to curtail the spread.
“Obviously, we had to make a very hard decision to close the district,” she said, amid a conversation about cleaning the schools, “but we were given the gift of time to level-set some things in our buildings. We need to take advantage of this time.
Cleaning the buildings is but one of a hundred things on her mind.
School districts all over are learning how tough it will be to pivot with less-than-adequate prep time and educate thousands of children through digital means. DeKalb County School District leaders say that task is made exponentially greater for them, considering not every student has access to the needed technology and the district’s parents speak more than 100 languages.
“Even though we’re closed, the work will continue,” Tyson told about 20 people assembled in a second-floor conference room at the district’s headquarters Friday. “We just have to change how we do the work. We’re going to work harder closed than we do open — and the area of technology is going to be very, very important.”
Friday’s meeting was a continuation of discussions covering every student population and any potential hiccup that could arise. District officials said they are preparing for a digital experience for up to a month.
“This isn’t our first meeting,” Vasanne Tinsley, DeKalb’s deputy superintendent for student support and intervention, said after the group disbursed around noon Friday. “Ironically, a few weeks ago, we talked about what would we do if we were given a day’s notice to close schools.
“Here we are.”
Stacy Stepney, the district’s chief academic officer, said teachers were working Friday to send two weeks of lessons to students by the end of the day on Verge, the district’s digital learning system. The lessons include videos and clickable worksheets, among other resources.
Teachers also have the ability to upload videos where they give the lessons themselves. Students and parents are shown learning targets, what students are expected to know when the lesson is completed.
But not all students will have access to the digital platform while school buildings are closed. Stepney said alternative lesson plans are being implemented where students are asked to read. Stepney said when digital learning days are used for inclement weather, students have time when they return to classrooms to complete any missed assignments. That will be the case here, too, she said.
Stepney said meetings would continue for Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), built for students to be taught at their respective paces, and the district would work with parents to determine whether those meetings would happen in-person or through video conferencing technology. Plans could be made to extend the school year for students with special needs, such as those who meet with speech pathologists or physical therapists, if they are unable to get the necessary support while at home.
“Are they in other languages?” Tyson asked about the digital lessons, acknowledging not all of the district’s students have mastered English.
“The students are learning in English,” Stepney said.
Stepney said that English for Students of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers are working with general education teachers to adapt assignments to meet student needs and to assist students with the lessons. Messages put online for parents, Stepney said, are translated to different languages.
“Good,” Tyson said, “because people don’t understand the child is the one who speaks English.”
Before the meeting ended, Tyson asked about plans to how seniors would be handled in these last months of school.
“There needs to be complete monitoring and tracking of everything associated with getting students on track to graduate,” she said.
That part hits home for Tyson, with two teens in the district, including one who is a senior.
Elsewhere in district operations, Cedric Burse, the district’s fleet services director, said buses were being disinfected and stored as they are during school breaks, but checked often so they will be ready when schools return to normal.
DeKalb County School District Police Department Chief Bradley Gober said his department, which will remain in round-the-clock operation, will perform concentrated patrol on school bus holding sites and monitor schools, as breaks leave them vulnerable to potential burglaries.
Dan Drake said the 91 schools being used on March 24 as voting sites for the primary election will be cleaned again after elections to avoid recontamination.
“We don’t have it all figured out,” Tyson said. “Some of it, you’re building that plane while you’re flying it at the same time.
“But we will have a flight plan.”
About the Author
