Remote start to school year

Students online while teachers in classes

It’s back to school for Shelby County School students Monday, although it’s the teachers that are headed back to the school buildings instead of students. Initially offering families the choice between in-person and virtual learning, Shelby County Schools opted in late July for a completely virtual return due to COVID-19 safety precautions. All students will be learning remotely, be it from their own dining rooms, at a friend of family member’s house or at a child care facility. Teachers, though, still have the choice between teaching from their classrooms or working from home (upon approval from their respective administrators). SCS is the last of the county’s seven public school districts to begin the school year. A 5-4 vote on the calendar this summer delayed the start of school by three weeks, allowing the district more time to distribute the digital devices it purchased for every student.

Device pick-ups were scheduled throughout August for families to pick up a laptop, and, for those who qualified, a hot spot for internet access.

At Hickory Ridge Elementary School, about 71% of the school’s roughly 680 registered students had a device by early Friday afternoon, Principal James Gordon said Friday. He expects at least 90% will have their devices once the weekend pick-up times are complete, and plans to continue to reach out to parents by phone to ensure every student is logged on through their own district device by the time the first week back to school ends.

“We still want to provide a sense of normalcy. We want to treat it just like they’re coming into the building, it’s just on a virtual level,” Gordon said.

Just like in a normal school year, he wants students ready and on time for learning. This year, that means being logged online instead of at a desk.

At the start of the summer, the district had about 5,800 instructional vacancies to fill, and whittled the number down to 65 this week, said William Johnson, the talent acquisition manager within the district’s human resource department. The total number of vacancies is in line with last year, he said Friday, and the number of open slots has decreased year over year.

Certified substitutes will fill those spots for Monday, he said.

For teachers, resuming the year virtually may be a relief from a safety standpoint, but that doesn’t mean the desire to still be teaching in-person isn’t there.

“You can ask any educator around the world and we would all rather be in the classroom with our kids, but safety is our first priority,” said Ciara Sladetrejo, entering her second year teaching the second grade. “I’m very relieved that (SCS) has chosen to be safe this year.”

She and Silvia Cooper, who will be teaching science and social studies to third-graders, are both teaching from the school. Cooper has a set-up with two computers, one for her lesson presentations and another to monitor her students through Microsoft Teams, the platform the district is using for virtual learning. Teaching from the school allows her to have a routine, she said, and teach using materials in the classroom, like the pull-down maps for geography lessons.

Cooper, who used to work closely with students whose first language is Spanish, is still going to adjust her virtual lessons and classroom materials to help those students, she said.

“I have ‘welcome’ in English and Spanish,” she said, pointing to a handmade poster behind her desk, “because I will have some English language learners, and I want to make them feel welcome.”

Slade-trejo is optimistic, but facing the new year with a realistic lens, too, she said.

“Technology, we love it, but it’s not always what we want it to be,” she said, making an example out of a power outage that happened during open house. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s going to be perfect, because we all know it’s not, but definitely just being there and trying on both sides is going to be where this school year is at.”

Laura Testino covers education and children’s issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @Ldtestino

JOE RONDONE/THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL; GETTY IMAGES ILLUSTRATION Hickory Ridge Elementary Principal James Gordon says, “We want to treat it just like they’re coming into the building, it’s just on a virtual level.”

PHOTOS BY JOE RONDONE/MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL William Johnson, talent acquisition manager for human resources for Shelby County Schools, said the district had about 5,800 instructional vacancies to fill, and whittled that down to 65.

Ciara Slade-trejo, a second-grade teacher at Hickory Ridge Elementary, says, “We would all rather be in the classroom with our kids, but safety is our first priority.”

Sylvia Cooper, a third-grade science and social studies teacher at Hickory Ridge Elementary, has a set-up with two computers, one for her lesson presentations and another to monitor her students through Microsoft Teams.