Superintendent of Schools Doug White told the Old Rochester Regional School Committee more than once during its April 15, remote-access meeting to anticipate the news that came down from Governor Baker on Tuesday announcing the fate of the traditional 2019-20 school year.
It just wasn’t the news everyone wanted to hear.
Students will not be returning to campus. Remote learning will last the duration of the school year, which also unfortunately cancels all extra-curricular activities including but not limited to spring sports, prom and graduation exercises.
“You feel bad for the seniors and what they’re going through and missing all these events, and I hope the committee will stand up and support (ORR Principal Mike Devoll) and the high school … hopefully we’ll be able to do something and support them,” said ORR School Committee Chairperson Cary Humphrey. “None of us have had to deal with this in our entire lifetime, and they’re dealing with it.”
The good news coming down from White is the report he had received from the state’s education commissioner authored by MIT that ranked Massachusetts second in the country in remote learning.
Old Rochester has come a long way since Friday, March 13, when only hours before the state closed the campuses White advised a Marion Emergency Preparedness meeting that the district lacked the equipment to transition to remote learning. A month later, ORR is the envy of school districts across the state for its ambitious approach toward learning away from the school buildings.
“We have learned that a lot of our students have taken on greater responsibilities during this time, and a synchronous schedule would not work for them and would not provide equity for all so we adopted the asynchronous model where staff is posting lessons and assignments by 9:30 every morning so that students can work on their own schedule to meet due dates,” said Devoll. “In my opinion, it’s the best model around.”
Devoll has attended many meetings and the feedback suggests that school districts reaching out want to learn more from ORR about its model. “I’m very proud of the model we have in place and the work that our staff has done,” he said.
Staff members have office hours, some by video conferencing, some by phone and some by a chat feature. But 100 percent of the staff is available at dedicated times for immediate feedback.
“We were given the choice from the state … we chose to continue through the curriculum because we are anticipating a student that finishes Algebra 2 to move into pre-Calculus, and there are concepts that are needed that we had not reached by March 13,” said Devoll, explaining with the example. “So we are moving forward … understanding that we are not going to hit upon the entire scope that we would have in a normal year, but enough so that students can move forward into whatever course they matriculate into. … And not all schools are doing that.
“I love our model. I think that we are doing right by our kids.”
Junior High Principal Silas Coellner has grouped that school’s subjects in a Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday arrangement with Fridays set aside for independent work, intervention groups, enrichment, clubs, advisories, etc.
Most lessons are asynchronous. Coellner reported that, while 25 percent of the staff was using Google Classroom before remote-learning began, 75 percent now utilize the platform.
Special education is 100 percent via Google Classroom, Zoom and video chats with regular check-ins. A Google calendar has been set up so that teachers can know when students are going to be on video chat.
New learning is mixed in with review. “We’re trying to find that balance in between,” said Coellner, who reported that 50 parents attended two meetings, working on consistency for pass-fail grading.
Assistant Superintendent Mike Nelson reported on special education and Individual Education Plans. Starting on April 6, ORR began providing parents and guardians weekly service plans … tailored toward a remote-learning environment.
“Our thought process was, ‘Let’s put team meetings and IEP meetings on hold and put all of our efforts and all of our resources into providing as many services as possible,” said Nelson. “So what that looks like is we’re providing consultation services to the general-ed. teachers, to the students themselves, we’re supporting the general-education, remote-learning platform that all students are experiencing.
“We’re also doing direct services, meaning individual services and small-group as well using some of the tools we’ve already talked about including Zoom and Google Meet, and I’m very proud on how quickly we adapted as educators and related-service providers, and this extends to our physical therapists, our speech and language pathologists and our (occupational therapists).”
Nelson hopes soon to add virtual team meetings to comply with as many IEP’s as possible and thanked the teachers and paraprofessionals for “really rising to the occasion and adapting to these circumstances” and the building administration for “making sure that special education was part of the process as they were designing their remote-learning environments.”
White said that ORR has given out over 300 Chromebooks, and people are still requesting them based on at-home needs.
The lingering concern in any model – and ORR is not immune – is the risk of students falling through the cracks.
Assistant Principal Vanessa Harvey and Devoll have called over 147 students since we remote learning was launched to check in and check up. “’Hey, we just want to connect with you, we want to engage, we want to make sure you’re OK, you’re missing assignments.’ That’s how we want to take attendance,” summarized Devoll. “The Zoom (meetings) are really working for some kids and for a lot of teachers it’s working. It’s also how we’re kind of taking temperatures of kids.
“I’ve got a lot of teachers emailing me. We’ve got a lot of sad kids, we’ve got a lot of kids that are not doing well. Those face-to-face (meetings) are invaluable.”
School resource police officer Matt McGraw has gone out to homes just to check on students.
The school committee approved the plan for school choice for the 2020-21 school year based on 20 available slots prioritizing Grades 7 (11 slots), 8 (3 slots) and 9 (11 slots). Any remaining open slots would become available to those in Grades 10-12.
ORR receives $5,000 for each student that decides to come to ORR from another school district.
The committee approved an update to language in the student handbook.
White reported that not using electricity and heat will help ORR save $100,000, but $500,000 still has to come off the bottom line. White asked for a budget subcommittee meeting.
Adding insult to the injury of the lost school year was a June 21 scheduled trip to Greece. The committee reported that EF Educational Tours, Inc. postponed the trip a full year, offering refunds minus $500. Some of the students scheduled for the trip are seniors.
White opened his report with a breakfast and lunch update, noting that all of ORR’s food service handlers got COVID-19 state-sponsored training. He said that, while ORR did not originally qualify to receive aid to assist in the lunch program, the district is now is being funded.
The totals since March 17 are 7,862 meals served, including 3,931 breakfasts and 3,931 lunches, and Saturday lunches that are delivered to students on Friday. White reported two grants, a $5,000 mini grant from Harvard-Pilgrim Health and $6,425 from ELS Foundations, both to help with ORR’s lunch program.
“I want to thank the nurses as well,” he said. “The nurses have reached out to homes that may need some assistance, and they are actually taking and delivering lunches to some of our families as a result of they cannot get out to our locations to pick up our lunches.”
In his facilities update, White reported that any areas being used are being sanitized and made ready for the next day. “We are using one of our vans to transport food … that van is being washed down every day,” he said.
Committee member Jim Muse said, “We should have our eye open for any and all opportunity for help” once schools reopen and facilities stop getting the same quality of attention.
That, of course, would not come to pass in academic year 2019-20.
The next meeting of the ORR School Committee is scheduled for May 27, and the next Joint meeting is scheduled for June 11.
Old Rochester Regional School Committee
By Mick Colageo