Online classes keep school on schedule

Teachers will cover most important materials from fourth marking period

The school buildings remain closed because of the coronavirus, but school is back in session.

While the preference would be for teachers and students to be together in their normal classrooms, until that’s again possible, district teachers will be doing so online, Pennridge School District Superintendent David Bolton said.

The district had already been providing online educational materials while the buildings were closed but was making a change March 31, he said.

“We are changing from enrichment remediation materials, which is what we’ve been providing so far, to instructional and new material,” he said.

The online classes can’t totally replace what would be happening in the classroom, but the district is aiming to make sure students get as much as possible of what they would have if they were in class, he said.

“To say that it will be exactly the same, I don’t believe that will be true,” Bolton said. “What will be true is that we will make sure that we cover our set fourth marking period curriculum, cover the most important materials and make sure that our students are ready for whatever’s next, whether it’s the next grade level or moving on after they graduate.”

The school calendar remains the same, with graduation scheduled for June 11 and the final day for other students June 16, he said.

The third marking period ends April 6, but student grades for the marking period will be calculated based on what the grade would have been March 13 when the in-school classes ended, Bolton said. Remediation work done after March 13 could raise a student’s grade for the marking period, he said.

“Under no circumstances will a student’s grade be lower than what they had as of work completed through March 13th,” information on the district web page said.

Grading for the fourth marking period begins April 7, Bolton said. The online work done before then won’t be graded, he said.

“The purpose of that is simply we want to make sure that all of our teachers, all of our families, all of our students, have plenty of time to learn the new platforms, the new online resources, that we’re using and getting used to the structure before we add the extra layer of grades,” he said.

District supervisors have prioritized the curriculum to make sure the most important parts will be covered by the end of the school year and to make up for materials not covered during the time school was not in session, Bolton said.

“I just want to take every opportunity I have to just say how impressed and thankful I am for the extra work that our teachers and administrators have been doing, as well as the extra work that the families and the students have been doing,” he said. “We’re all in a brand new experience for us and it has been wonderful to watch the families and the teachers care for one another and figure this out.”

“I just want to take every opportunity I have to just say how impressed and thankful I am for the extra work that our teachers and administrators have been doing, as well as the extra work that the families and the students have been doing. We’re all in a brand new experience for us and it has been wonderful to watch the families and the teachers care for one another and figure this out.” — Pennridge School District Superintendent David Bolton