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Fxbg, Stafford school superintendents talk online learning amid coronavirus outbreak

Surrounded by Marvel action figures and posters on the bedroom wall behind him, all while sitting in the comfort of his own home, Del. Josh Cole (D-28, Fredericksburg, Stafford) hosted a virtual town hall Wednesday evening with Stafford County Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner and Fredericksburg City Public Schools Superintendent Marceline Catlett. 

Both superintendents answered questions from the public about each school systems’ plan to continue educating its students from home after the coronavirus closed school buildings statewide until at least June 10.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Ralph Northam closed school buildings across the commonwealth for the remainder of the school year citing his concerns about the virus. The sudden change left school systems scrambling to create virtual lesson plans to continue educating Virginia’s students. 

Fredericksburg and Stafford, along with the majority of other jurisdictions across Virginia, are continuing to work together to create online learning plans that are as complementary as possible to one another. 

“If we don’t do this right then this has the potential to expand the [achievement] gap between students,” Kizner said. “We don’t want to rush. We want to do it right.”

Both school districts are focusing on three ‘major areas of concern,’ according to Catlett. Those three areas include instruction, technological support, and meal distribution.

Instruction

School leaders had a choice when it came to online learning; they could have directed each teacher to hold a live-streamed class or pre-record a lecture. Instead, Kizner and Catlett –along with most of Virginia– are giving the power to the teachers to make their own call when it comes to online learning.

“We’re not going to be able to replicate a traditional classroom setting during this period,” Kizner said.

Most teachers already use google classroom as a communication tool during normal school operations. Kizner widely expects that teachers will continue to use google classroom to post assignments and pre-recorded lessons.

The only thing teachers were directed not to do: grade assignments.

Teachers were told that the assignments that they give out are ‘enrichment material’ and should ‘strongly encourage’ their students to complete them but the potential lawsuit and other equity concerns are prohibiting teachers from grading assignments.

“We are, of course, concerned about equity in how we distribute supplemental learning from this point on,” Catlett said.

Online instruction for elementary and middle schools is set to begin Monday, April 6 while high school instruction is slated to open the following week.

“We’re going to look at expanding summer school [for those who fall behind in online learning],” Kizner said.

Technology support

Both school systems know they have students that don’t have access to online learning while at home. Some students come from low-income families that can’t afford mobile devices or an internet bill. Others, mainly in the rural areas of Stafford, live in homes where there is no infrastructure to access broadband internet.

To compensate, Fredericksburg and Stafford are beginning to lend out Chromebook laptops to students that don’t own a laptop or tablet that would need to be returned either in the summer or the following school year. 

Students in Fredericksburg that don’t have in-home access to the internet were asked to call the school system and were referred to Cox and Comcast. Both Cox and Comcast are offering special deals to teleworkers and students that include higher internet speeds at lower prices until students are able to physically return to school.

The city’s school division has asked families to fill out a survey to gauge how many students have access to a computer at home. 

Prince William County Public School last week announced the $6.4 million purchase of more than 15,000 computers for some of the county’s 27,000 high school students. Those computers will be handed out next month.

Stafford, meanwhile, is offering hotspot devices called Kajeets to students that live in rural areas with no internet access for the time being.

Meals distribution

More than 68% of Fredericksburg students are eligible for free and reduced lunch while Stafford County sits at around 33%, according to a report from the state’s Department of Education. Both Catlett and Kizner understand that schools often provide students with their only full meal of the day.

Knowing that some parents of students rely on school meals to feed their children, each school system has set up a meal distribution plan during the normal school week. 

Stafford and Fredericksburg have set up ‘grab-and-go’ meal distribution centers near low-income neighborhoods, churches and at community centers in their respective jurisdictions. Both Kizner and Catlett ask that the meals be ‘for the students’ but anyone is welcome to grab a bag.

Graduation

Kizner and Catlett said that they’ve received endless questions about whether each school district will hold in-person or virtual high school commencement ceremonies. Both reiterated that they want to honor graduating seniors and will ‘do their best’ to hold an in-person ceremony later in the summer.

“I’m planning on making an announcement or recommendation to the community about graduation at the next School Board meeting on April 14,” Kizner said.

Residents with questions are being directed to their school respective districts websites to keep up-to-date on what each school system is doing in terms of online learning.

In the Rappahannock region, Stafford County has the most cases of coronavirus at 41, as of Sunday, April 5, 2020. Spotsylvania reported 24, and Fredericksburg reported seven.

In the Prince William region, there are 175 cases in Prince William County, 14 in Manassas, and two in Manassas Park as of Sunday.

Statewide, 2,637 people had tested positive for coronavirus (625 more than Friday, April 3), 431 people had been hospitalized (119 more than Friday, April 3, 2020), and 51 had died (five more than Friday, April 3).

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