Local schools adjust to ‘distance learning’

WOONSOCKET – Teachers and students are continuing the school year from home due to the continuing coronavirus crisis, and it appears to be working out for the most part so far, according to School Superintendent Patrick Mc*ee.

There were a few glitches with the startup and a few families have not yet connected with their schools, but overall, Mc*ee said the district's staff, teachers and are working to make the best of a difficult situation.

³We're taking it day by day. I can tell you that the teachers and the administrators and the support staff are really doing an amazing job of reaching out and communicating with their students and providing them with supports while we try to navigate through this distance learning process,´ Mc*ee said on Wednesday.

³What I've heard, I have received some positive feedback from some parents. Teachers are just working so hard, they really are working hard to provide the supports to their students,´ Mc*ee said.

³I think that like every other district around that is going through this, we are learning as we go. No one was prepared for this. I don't care what other districts say, no one was prepared for this and we are going to take it one day at a time and we are going to give it the best we can for our kids and our families,´ Mc*ee said.

The program got started this week as the prior week's early spring vacation ended and *ov. *ina Raimondo ordered public schools to distance learning programs while school remained closed due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in the state.

Mc*ee said there were ³some kinks and some wrinkles´ that needed to be ironed out, so the district have people communicating with families and if they needed help with the distance learning program, ³then we are here to try to help them.´

,n all, about , Chromebooks were distrib uted to middle school and high school students and over , hard copy pack ets to pre k through grade students to start the week, he noted.

)or those who did not get their Chromebook or work packets, Mc*ee said anoth er opportunity for pick up is scheduled to be held at the 9illa 1ova Middle School on )riday from to p.m.

That is the same time fam ilies can bring city students to +amlet Middle School for the *rab *o meal program and Mc*ee said they will be able to stop at 9illa 1ova and then at +amlet to get every thing they need.

)or now elementary stu dents are working on pa per based materials but Mc *ee said there also some consideration being given to issuing students in grades

through Chromebooks, too, if *ov. *ina 5aimondo moves to a full shutdown of the state. ,n that case, parents would not be able to pick up their packets, expected to be distributed in two week in crements, and the Chrome books could be issued instead for the older elementary stu dents, he noted.

“:e have Chromebooks currently in our elementary schools, we don’t have a one to one initiative but each el ementary classroom has to Chromebooks and we also have Chromebook carts in each of our schools,´ Mc *ee said while relating what eTuipment would be used for the expanded program.

“Those Chromebook carts are used throughout the day by a variety of teachers, so we would pretty much col lapse all of those and we would distribute them in

grades , and ,´ he said.

“,t is Must something, we are talking about right now. :e don’t have a plan, but if it comes to the point where the *overnor would shut the state down then that is some thing that we would very strongly consider,´ Mc*ee said.

The district has also been distributing eTuipment used by special education students in addition to Chromebooks to their families this week to allow for them to continue making use of those resourc es, Mc*ee noted.

“Pretty much all of those have been distributed to the students that were typically using them in the classroom,´ Mc*ee said.

As for how it is all run ning, Mc*ee said he plans to put a letter out to families this week to keep them in formed and updated on what is happening, “and letting them know who their points of contact are,´ Mc*ee said.

“The teachers have been great, the teachers have been reaching out to families daily. So , think the communication is really good,´ Mc*ee said.

The only maMor concern that has cropped up, he not ed, is the families who have not made contact back with the district since the program began.

“:e do have some fam ilies that we have reached out to, which is alarming, we reached out via email, via phone call and there are some that are not responding. So we may resort to sending our attendance officer out, knocking on doors,´ Mc*ee said.

“, hate to do that but we are being charged with edu cating kids remotely and par ents have to do their part,´ he said.

,t may be that some parents are working and even work multiple Mobs, he said. “%ut when teachers are reaching

out to them and they are not responding, if they are get ting messages, they need to respond to the teachers so we can make sure their children are engaged,´ he said.

There are not a lot who have not responded at the moment, but Mc*ee said he has asked principals to pre pare a list for each school to be reviewed on )riday.

“,n some cases, it could be that their email addresses changed or their telephone numbers changed, but the onus is on the families, when you get a situation like this where it is a crisis where we have to reach them,´ Mc*ee said.

“+opefully that number is not going to be very great but we’re going to sort of re gather at the end of the week and see which families we have been unable to make contact with,´ Mc*ee said.

Overall, Mc*ee said he was impressed by his dis trict’s response.

“:e are a resilient school department, we are resilient community and , am Must very proud of how everyone is collaborating and work ing together. ,t is an honor to work with these people. ,t is an honor to work with these teachers, and these staff and these administrators and there is no better district around,´ Mc*ee said.

“That’s something , have always known but you real ly see it when you are in the midst of a crisis. So ,’m Must really proud of my teachers, my staff and my administra tors, and the kids, this isn’t easy for our kids either,´ Mc *ee said.

“,’m really proud of our kids and we are going to get through this, and we are go ing to be a stronger district when we get through this,´ he said.