Excited, anxious
El Dorado schools chief talks campus reopenings
The El Dorado Rotary Club hosted El Dorado School District Superintendent Jim Tucker at their regular meeting Monday. The meeting was held over Zoom, with Rotarians tuning in from their offices and homes.
Alice Mahony introduced Tucker, describing his background at Southern Arkansas and Texas A&M universities and referring to him as the ESD's ‘Chief Learner.'
“‘Chief Learner' — Goodness, that sounds like something I've done a lot
of the past three months,” Tucker said. “Trying to understand where we're at as a state and a nation and definitely as a school district, so I can definitely relate to ‘Chief Learner' at this time.”
Tucker discussed the ESD's education options for students for the upcoming 2020/2021 school year, which include an all-virtual online option, Wildcat Online Academy, and an on-site blended learning option, where students will attend school normally with technology, including Chromebooks and online learning tools like Google Classroom, will be integrated into the curriculum in case the district needs to pivot and resume at-home learning for all students at any point in the school year.
“The ADE (Arkansas Department of Education) is saying we need to have a blended approach to education whenever we start school, and I totally agree with that,” Tucker said. “We need to have students ready to learn virtually.”
Tucker said committees made up of district administration, teachers, instructional chairs and even some parents have been formed to address the various approaches to education, as well as health and safety standards and the logistics of starting school in the fall. The ESD planned to restart school on Aug. 13, but the start date has been pushed back after Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced last week that all schools in the state would have to wait to start until Aug. 24.
“I don't think a week is going to make a difference (as far as COVID19). We were already in overdrive, and now we're in overdrive trying to adjust the calendar,” Tucker said. “I think there are some school districts that will probably benefit from it, just the preparation. I know from talking to superintendents across the state … another week could benefit them. And actually, we ordered our Chromebooks ahead of everybody else, and they're still going to get here just in the nick of time because everyone's ordering them.”
Tucker said the district had purchased 1,800 Chromebooks, more than enough for each student, both in the WOA and those learning on-site, to have one. He said money provided to the school through the federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act paid for the laptops, with about $600,000 of the approximately $1 million the district received used for that purpose. The district also purched 1,000 wi-fi hotspots for students without or with poor internet access at home.
He said one of the biggest challenges districts face in the upcoming school year is transportation for students. All bus drivers in the ESD will be required to wear masks while transporting students, as will students over the age of 10, and touchless hand sanitizer dispensers will be installed in all the district's buses so students may clean their hands before they are seated.
Tucker noted that some COVID-19 guidance from the Arkansas Department of Health relies on parents to screen their children before sending them to school. The district can't enforce that, but, he said, the committees in place for health and safety and logistics are determining what best practices the district can adopt to promote students' and teachers' safety.
“You hear various opinions … from medical professionals. I don't have that expertise,” Tucker said. “If the governor says go to school on this day, we're going to go to school on that day and do everything we can to make students and teachers safe.”
Teachers in the ESD have been working throughout the summer to learn more about teaching virtually. Tucker said it will depend on how many students in each grade level registered for WOA whether teachers will teach only in-person or virtually as well. About 700 of the ESD's 4,200 students registered for the WOA, he said, with between 7 and 9% of those 700 from each grade level; eighth-graders made up the largest group of WOA registrants with 74 students, or about 10% of the 700 WOA students, and high school seniors made up the smallest percentage.
The teachers will also take eight days of professional development directly before the start of the school year. Tucker said that is extended from the typical five or six days teachers might have right before the school year starts. The late summer professional development session is typically where new initiatives are rolled out, he said.
“I know without a doubt teachers need that time to move into a different learning environment than they've ever been in before,” Tucker said. “Eight days is a pretty big deal.”
“Our teachers have done a great job learning things that might not have been comfortable for them,” added Michelle Henry, the district's new Director of Curriculum and Federal Programs, who previously served as the principal at Yocum and who joined Tucker for the Rotary meeting.
Dr. Bentley Wallace, President of South Arkansas Community College and a Rotarian, said the college is still working on its education model for the fall semester, bearing in mind what their Kindergarten through 12th grade partners throughout Union County have planned.
“The college is monitoring the El Dorado School District and other districts. We're going to work really hard to make sure what we do at the college complements that,” he said. “It doesn't do us any good at the college to launch into a model that doesn't support what our K-12 partners are doing.
Of course, the safety of staff and students is paramount. … We want to have students on campus on Aug. 17 … and will pivot if need be and continue educating our students and supporting the community.”
Tucker asked that the district, and particularly the teachers working in the ESD, be kept in the community's prayers.
“They're anxious, they're nervous, they're scared; I'm married to one, I know. I feel for them, I really do. I don't think I'm as anxious or nervous because I've been here all summer and I've had the opportunity to talk to everyone all over the state,” he said. “When you watch the news and think you have to go into the classroom on Aug. 24, you get nervous. Please keep them in your prayers.”
The El Dorado High School Class of 2020 held a graduation ceremony Monday evening. The district will start the 2020/2021 school year August 24, and the district will be in contact with students and parents about scheduling.