Throughout the fall semester, public school districts throughout the Golden Triangle frequently adjusted learning models, equipment and just about everything else related to teaching and learning, all under the specter of a global pandemic that has infected millions of Americans.
Headed to the spring, most area superintendents are saying those adjustments have paid off and better prepared them to continue their current learning models through at least the third nine weeks.
However, most school officials say they are closely monitoring case numbers in the state and Golden Triangle area and are ready to make adjustments — from sending schools or districts back to the all-virtual model first implemented when the pandemic began in March or, more optimistically, integrating students back into classrooms full-time in the case of Columbus Municipal School District.
Those decisions will just be one more factor school administrators have to juggle in a year defined by COVID-19. Teachers have had to deal with everything from ensuring students can effectively work from home — a problem made easier in the last month when CMSD and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District distributed hundreds of devices to students and teachers — to the academic challenges students face when their access to classrooms is limited and they are dealing with the stress of the pandemic.
“We’re ready for the worst, and we’re hoping for the best,” CMSD Superintendent Cherie Labat said. “I guess that is the slogan of this pandemic.”
CMSD
CMSD has not offered traditional in-person learning to students since the pandemic first shut schools down in March, instead giving students the option between totally virtual learning and a hybrid model, where students attend in-person classes two days a week. That has kept about 10 to 12 students in a classroom at a time, Labat said.
That model will not change going into January. However, administrators opened enrollment in November for any parents who wanted to switch learning models for their children. By the time all the students who wish to move to hybrid have made the transition in January, about 70 percent of CMSD’s students will be hybrid and 30 percent will be virtual, Labat said.
Her longer-term hope is that by late February, depending on the status of the COVID-19 vaccine and the number of cases in the state and county, administrators can begin to phase students back into a traditional, full-time learning model starting in the fourth nine weeks.
Alternatively, the district is also ready if the case count continually grows to the point where administrators close schools. Thanks to $353,000 in federal CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funds, the district has purchased 2,653 new laptops, allowing each student to take home a device for online learning.
Labat is prioritizing safety for her students and staff.
“It’s been a very emotional journey, but I think that we’ve made great decisions in the district …,” she said. “And we’re going to get through this.”
Starkville-Oktibbeha
SOCSD students have the option between virtual or in-person classes. When the semester began, high schoolers also had the option of choosing the hybrid model, but administrators did away with that option in October after discovering that not only was it difficult for teachers to come up with both in-person and virtual lesson plans, but students were falling behind academically on the days they were not on campus.
The district was also forced in November to temporarily move the entire sixth grade online after several teachers at Partnership Middle School had to go into quarantine.
Along with those adjustments, Assistant Superintendent Anna Guntharp said, the biggest for the district was trying to facilitate internet access for students.
“Probably one of the things that we have learned about is access to technology for students who are quarantined,” she said. “… Thankfully, we, in the last month, have received devices and have been able to distribute those to all of our students that were virtual students.”
Guntharp and district Public Information Officer Nicole Thomas said SOCSD spent $600,000 in CARES funds to purchase laptops for teachers and Chromebooks for second through 12th graders. Administrators also repurposed the district’s iPads to give to each kindergartener and first grader.
Thomas said not only does that ensure every student can learn from home, but it allows teachers to more easily help students navigate virtual classrooms than if the types or brands of devices varied from student to student.
“It’d be like everybody having a different textbook, with the same information but all laid out differently,” she said.
Superintendent Eddie Peasant said students’ academic performance has varied, “depending on the child and the household.” Factors like access to internet at home and parental involvement can affect both their learning and morale.
Administrators are strongly encouraging parents to enroll their children in traditional, in-person learning next semester if that student is not scoring at least Cs in their classes, he said.
While there are no definitive plans either to bring all students back to campus or all go back to online classes, Peasant said administrators are following case numbers in the community and ready to have schools or the district go back online if need be.
“Of course we’ve discussed the different options of what it might look like if we reach a certain number or if we have a certain number of infected students or teachers … in our schools,” he said.
Lowndes County
At the start of the semester, Lowndes County School District administrators gave parents the option between virtual and in-person learning and told parents they had to stick with their choice through the first semester, which ends Jan. 19. However, concerns from parents about the effectiveness of virtual learning led LCSD to allow roughly 200 students to switch from virtual to in-person learning mid-semester.
LCSD is also expanding its Wi-Fi connectivity at its sports facilities and parking lots with about $915,499 from the Mississippi Pandemic Response Broadband Availability Act.
Superintendent Sam Allison said the semester has reinforced that online learning is “not a replacement for the classroom.”
“Some students do fine in that environment, but it’s really more of a team effort,” Allison said. “The parents really need to be involved on the virtual learning side more to ensure more success.”
LCSD has the most COVID-19 cases of any district in Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties, with 148 student and staff cases all semester.
Allison said several of these cases and outbreaks have happened outside school buildings.
“We feel comfortable and good about what we’re doing as far as sanitizing and distancing,” he said. “With the pandemic, everything is day-by-day and anything could change at the drop of a hat.”
Allison said with more than a month left in the semester, it is still too early to definitively say what changes to safety protocols might be enacted next semester.
“We always evaluate every situation we’re in, and when you have as many buildings or as many kids (as we do), you’re always looking at ways to make things better, whether it’s how you eat lunch or how you change classes,” Allison said. “Our goal is always to be the safest we can be. If we have problems or potential issues, we’re going to change them.”
West Point, Noxubee schools
West Point Consolidated School District Superintendent Burnell McDonald declined to comment for this story, according to his administrative assistant Carolyn Golson, though she added McDonald said there are not currently any plans to change learning models or other COVID-19 policies and procedures.
The district began the school year with an all-virtual learning environment, but switched on Sept. 21, less than a month into the semester, to allow about 2,000 students — around 70 percent of the district’s population — to enroll in a hybrid system.
Noxubee County School District Superintendent Rodriguez Broadnax did not respond to calls or an email from The Dispatch by press time. The Dispatch previously reported that more than 1,000 of the district’s roughly 1,300 students are enrolled in virtual learning, while the rest are in hybrid classes, which is available only to kindergarteners and students with learning challenges.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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