Houston County schools are preparing for the fall. Here’s what parents are saying:
When children in Houston County go back to school next month, they and their parents will have two options: return to campus with “enhanced health and safety protocols” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, or learn from home via the Houston County School District’s new virtual learning program.
According to information detailing the new protocols posted on its website, the school district will encourage, but not require, students and teachers to wear masks. The district will provide classrooms with sanitizing equipment, including disinfectant wipes, hand sanitizer and disposable gloves. Teachers will keep students as far a part as possible, acknowledging that maintaining six feet between students is “a challenge” and that students will typically sit three to six feet apart.
The district received almost 11,000 responses to a survey it sent to parents and employees in June regarding returning to school. According to the district, almost 77% of parents plan to send their children to in-person classes; 15.4% need virtual instruction at home; and 38.7% plan to have their children ride a school bus.
Additional plans
The district formulated its 2020-21 school year plan based on advice and direction from the state health and education departments, the CDC, the Georgia High School Association, Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive orders, Houston County and the district’s board of education. Here are some additional elements of the plan:
- Students will be kept in separate cohorts for lunch and recess as much as possible
Schools will have thermometers to take the temperature of anyone with symptoms
Parents must keep children at home if they’re sick
No field trips
Buses will continue to run, with buses sanitized regularly and sanitizing equipment available
Additionally, the district said it would move to exclusive virtual learning if required to do so by a “rise in outbreak.” As of Monday at 3 p.m., the state health department reported 1,003 cumulative coronavirus cases in Houston County and 30 related deaths.
Parental response
While many parents are struggling with decisions to be made on homeschooling, eLearning, childcare, and work schedules, the virtual classrooms that students and teachers work in during the last part of the Spring semester had mixed reviews.
Stephanie Pope has five children in Houston County Schools ages 7 through 16. She said that though she has time to work with her children because she is a stay-at-home mom, virtual classrooms were initially stressful and overwhelming. After getting used to the virtual systems and submitting assignments, the process was smoother, although she said the difficulty of work varied.
“I thought the amount of work was great,” Pope said. “I never thought it was too much or too little. We worked five days a week, but Friday was a makeup day. The girls would start theirs about 11 a.m. and would be done by 2 p.m.”
While the transition to learning from was fairly smooth for Pope and her children, she was concerned about the rigor of the lessons. In the virtual classroom, her kids could simply search the internet for answers, leading her to question how much information they were retaining.
Lexi Henry has three boys who attend elementary and middle schools in Houston County. She said her middle schoolers had worked in Google classrooms prior to the school closings, so they were already somewhat familiar with it, and the teachers used Zoom and their Google email to communicate with them.
“The first day or so was tough running between the three kids, but once we got a set routine and got them all started, they worked through it very fast,” she explained. “At times, I thought they needed more work, they worked through it so fast.”
Henry said the teachers were “amazing,” with detailed instructions and emails for students. She hopes her boys can return to in-person classes in August.
Useful for some students, not others
Deangela Blackshear is a paraprofessional at Parkwood Elementary School and the mother of two Houston County students. She has mixed feelings about her children returning to school next month. She feels her son, who has ADHD, would benefit from a virtual classroom, but that her daughter would be fine either back on campus or at home.
“For my son, I found it easy for him,” she explained about the virtual classroom. “He has difficulties getting up for school, so it was easier for him because he didn’t have distractions and worked at his own pace, and he knew to get up to do Zoom meetings.”
Houston County grandmother Dawn Martin was homeschooling her first grade granddaughter when the schools shut their doors. In order to help out her daughter who was then having to work on the computer from home all day, she started helping her second grade grandson with his virtual school for Centerville Elementary. For her, it was not a good experience.
“Communication with the teacher was an issue,” she said. “They would have Google sheets to edit and submit to the teacher. The assignments would be due, but the worksheet would not allow you to edit it. I’m emailing the teacher, sending messages through Google classroom and Dojo (for her) to let me know when it was fixed… lots of those kinds of glitches that hung everyone up.”
Her grandson also had writing assignments that had to be typed. Since he couldn’t type, it was extra work for her to type up his essay and submit it.
“There was a lot of stuff that required my attention, and I know that some of the parents were not doing anything with their kids… just stuck them on the computer and didn’t worry about it,” she said, adding that a lot of the material her grandson was given was simply review.
State rules, advice
The state health department continues to update a set of reopening rules for public schools initially released on June 13, noting in an update on Monday that while face coverings/masks are not state-mandated, they are “strongly recommended,” particularly situations where it is difficult for students to social distance.
Kemp and State School Superintendent Richard Woods have requested a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education of standardized testing and accountability requirements for the 2020-21 school year.
“When students enter the classroom this fall, they will be dealing with the ongoing effects of a global crisis and the trauma of necessary, but unprecedented, isolation,” Woods said. “In the midst of this, school districts will be implementing intensive protocols to ensure the safety of their students and staff. We believe our students’ and teachers’ focus belongs on making it through this challenge together and addressing learning loss, not on the pressure of a high-stakes standardized test. It is common sense that this is not the time to be concerned about the test.”
Telegraph senior editor Caleb Slinkard contributed to this story. Do you have more questions about Houston County School District’s 2020-21 coronavirus plans? Email us at breaking@macon.com.
