School district shares plans for coming year in online forum
BRAWLEY — When the 2020-21 school year begins in two weeks, Brawley Elementary School District students should expect an increase in the rigor of assignments compared to what they experienced in the spring.
When Imperial County schools closed March 17 due to COVID-19, district staff, teachers and administrators were still trying to adjust.
As a result, students received assignments that were less difficult than what they experienced while they were on campus.
Having spent the summer on planning how to better utilize distancing learning, BESD educators are now better prepared to start the school year from afar.
Students should anticipate assignments and a daily work course that is “very similar to the standards that students would normally be experiencing,” district Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug said.
Rundhaug explained this during a virtual Community/Parent Forum the district held Monday evening.
The virtual forum provided a school re-opening plan and updates from BESD administrators. The forum was presented in both English and Spanish and was livestreamed on the district’s website. It is still available for viewing on the district’s social media platforms.
Prior to Monday’s forum, the district conducted a week-long public survey to gather questions from the community regarding the upcoming school year.
During the forum, administrators provided responses to those questions. They also provided answers to questions that were submitted via text or email while the forum was being livestreamed.
For starters, the school year will start on its usual date of Aug. 17.
Per current health orders, there will be absolutely no students on campus. Students will be using Chromebooks to complete most of their assignments. Each BESD school site has a set date when students may pick up their assigned laptop.
Rundhaug said only students who are registered to attend BESD may receive a Chromebook. Therefore, he encouraged all parents who have not completed their student’s registration process to do so, as there are still about 850 students who haven’t started the process and 150 who have started but not finished.
Throughout their school day, students will engage in a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Synchronous learning means that a teacher is engaged with the student. Students will log on to Zoom or Google Meets to interact with their teachers in real time.
Asynchronous means that the teacher provides an assignment, whereupon live interaction stops so that the student can proceed to work on the assignment.
“We won’t expect students to sit in front of their computers for six hours,” Rundhaug said. Attendance will be taken daily. In order for a student to be marked as in attendance, a student will need to attend the live session, and complete all assignments for the day.
Lower grades will use the platform SeeSaw, while upper grades will use the platform Google Classrooms to turn in their assignments. Each Chromebook has a program through which teachers can monitor the activity on each laptop.
Aside from the laptop, any necessary materials, such as textbooks, will be distributed the first week of school at each school site. Rundhaug said several resources will be published on the district’s website in the coming weeks to assist parents, such as training how better to use Chromebooks. The superintendent said that at some point during this school year, the district expects it will move to a blended model of learning involving both online and in-person instruction. Rundhaug said the model under consideration would involve students on campus Monday through Thursday and then learning from home on Friday. This would be done, in part, to maintain preparation for distance learning in the event schools were school shut down again.
Through this period, the district would also offer distance learning for students whose parents don’t wish to have their kids on campus.
It was stated during Monday’s forum that all of BESD’s after-school programs will still be offered virtually. The district will also be offering daily breakfasts and lunches for students at all five schools.