The Guilford County Board of Education on Tuesday, July 28 voted to begin the first nine weeks of the 2020-2021 school year virtually on August 17.
The vote was 6 to 3 with school board members Pat Tillman, Linda Welborn and Anita Sharpe voting against the motion.
Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras had earlier recommended that the first five weeks of the school year be virtual, but altered her recommendation to the first nine weeks with some form of classroom instruction beginning on Oct. 20. There are currently four different options on how that classroom instruction would work.
School board members had a lot of questions about exactly how the virtual instruction process would work and some of the answers from staff amounted to, “We’ll have to wait and see,” because there are so many variables.
One of the issues school board members and staff discussed was that an estimated 20 percent of the students don’t have devices (tablets, laptops or computers) available and 17 percent don’t have a broadband connection sufficient for the job of remote learning.
School staff said that parents had to tell them what their needs were and they hoped to be getting devices out to students beginning the first week in August. It was unclear if GCS has enough devices for all the students, since at this point nobody is certain how many are needed.
From August 17 through Sept. 4, the proposed “Remote Learning Calendar” lists the activities for students as “Pre-recorded content and introduction to remote learning activities
“Health and safety protocol training for teachers and staff
“Student Orientation Appointments”
It was explained that because teachers will be meeting with students for orientation, they would not be available for regular virtual instruction.
Sept. 8, according to the calendar, will be the first day of what might be called regular virtual instruction. So beginning the day after Labor Day, the students, according to the calendar, will have “Live instruction, small group sessions, and individual check-ins.”
What the school board is facing on Oct. 20, if the students go back to actual classrooms, is a need for a lot more space to provide for social distancing.
According to the current social distancing requirements, GCS estimates that a school with a projected enrollment of 1,067 would have a capacity of 820 students and would need an additional 15 classrooms to serve all the students at one time.
John,
The expected enrollment of 1067 per average school is way too much. Consider the number of students who will either (a) enroll in one of the virtual academies, or (b) enroll in a charter, private or home school. 820, or 25% less than expected, is a much better estimate of what will actually happen.
As far as social distance is concerned, there is little evidence to support separating children; which is probably like herding cats anyway. But social distancing can’t hurt. Why not divide the class and teach them on alternate days, with alternate Fridays? I suspect this is a political thing.
Out children will not learn as well without interaction with other people. Will they grow up to spend their lives in front of a machine, as many of us do now?
I see timid flocks of people everywhere behaving as if they are afraid to make a mistake. This is our future. There is no where to hide.
Crazy Coop Quit
Hey, if we’re going to homeschool, let’s homeschool!
I refused to subject my sons to the public education system. My wife agreed to quit the workforce so as to educate them.
The loss of income really hurt….but the first one won a “free ride” scholarship to MIT, and the second one won a free ride scholarship to Carolina. And they were spared the chronic Leftist indoctrination and self-loathing as white boys they were expected to feel.
They are proud, successful, confident young men.
Who needs the garbage government schools?
What a dystopian nation we’re creating:
* Schools that don’t teach
* Police that don’t police
* Government that doesn’t govern
* Journalists that don’t investigate/critically analyze
* Workers who don’t work
America used to be a great country. We beat the Japanese and the Nazis simultaneously. We helped free millions worldwide from communist oppression. We realized on our own our flaws and corrected them with less violence or turmoil than anyone could’ve expected. We came up with inventions that changed the world: electric light, telephones, mass produced locomotion of all types, computers, internet, mobile communication, medicines that allow all of humanity to live longer and healthier. But you dare say America was once a great nation, you’re called a racist oppressor. I dare say those naysayers are fools.
Make America great again. Re-elect our president, increase the Senate majority, put Nattering Nancy back in the minority, and get Governor Dictator to fly the Coop.
Correct-a-mundo.
I have a friend in North Myrtle beach who owns a restaurant. He used to hire European help for the busy summers, because they wanted to work as much as they could to make lots of money to take home to a poor homeland. Now he has to hire locally. Young people on summer break, or entering the work force. They are WORTHLESS. No work ethic, they will leave work any time, not show up, use their phones on company time. They cannot count change, read a clock, or write incursive. They don’t know their 4 basic math skills, cannot do any ciphering in their heads. They cannot communicate with people (short attention span). And at best, they are disingenuous. Not everyone has these problems, but as a group they all do. If this sounds like one of your children, you know what I mean.
I personally have had servers and cashiers try to hustle me for numerous times.
they are not willing to work, and expect money for nothing (and the chicks for free). These people will be running our country in the future. They are the ones who were taught how to vote. Those few who do get a real education, and actually learn something useful, will be running everything. There won’t be many of them to run a 400-500 million people country. At the lower level of govt employees, we get these same people.
The countries that will prosper are those with a strong work ethic, willing to work and learn, to improve themselves. Not many come to mind. All I can think of right now are Japan & Norway.