North Scott deals with extended school closure

District to proceed with online learning; rest of school year in jeopardy

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North Scott students will be out of school until at least April 30, and Supt. Joe Stutting said he wouldn’t be shocked if students don't go back to their classrooms this school year.

Stutting wasn’t surprised when Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced last week that she would extend her previous school closure mandate from April 10 to April 30 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that school staff had already been preparing for that scenario.

“I just wish the decision they made last Thursday would’ve been made two to three weeks ago,” he said, “and we’d be much further along. But when you’re put in limbo, and told you can’t educate kids and you can’t provide feedback because we were worrying about equity, that slows the process.

“We have to work on equity. We need to figure out how to get Internet into homes that don’t have it, and we have to figure out what accommodations can be made for special education and ESL students. But we don’t want to hold up the educational process for everybody else while we’re figuring it out.

“Is it smart to hold up education for 90 percent of your kids, because of the other 10 percent? I’m glad they finally came to the decision that they did. We need to start educating kids.”

Even though a decision was made last week, Stutting said an even bigger decision is looming two weeks down the road, and that one could have major ramifications on students and families.

“I think the realization is, and the possibility of us never coming back, is pretty high,” he said. “If you listen to the national news, the next two weeks are going to be the hardest in terms of the pandemic, and that’s on the coasts.

“For us in the middle of the country that means three to four weeks, and that puts us into May. If we’re extended any further, then you’re really done for the year. You’re not coming back.”

If that worst-case scenario comes to fruition, Stutting said, it will be imperative to hold some type of graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020.

“That’s the one activity that we will have,” he said. “It’s important that we recognize our seniors, either virtually or a hybrid ceremony with social distancing, or an online type of thing. The high school staff is already starting to work on that.”

With the end-of-the-year senior banquet circuit right around the corner, Stutting did say that he would hope there would be some sort of online banquet for students to be recognized.

“If we do come back to school on May 1, we will probably still have prom,” he said, “but if we don’t, prom more than likely won’t happen.”

Stutting said that sports seasons are also in jeopardy.

“If we have one more extension, spring seasons are done,” he said. “I do think the state associations will try to push softball and baseball back to at least have a shortened season.

“I think that the governor’s next order will be that the school year is over, and we will finish out with the online version.”

 

Online education

Stutting said that principals and staff have spent the last two weeks looking at curriculum and trying to identify the essential standards that kids absolutely need to have to move on to the next grade level.

“We were assuming that at some point, we’d get to the point we reached last week,” he said. “We started that process, and now we’re determining what it will look like now that we’re going to be off school for at least another two weeks, or possibly the rest of the year.”

The Iowa Department of Education has put out two models for school districts to choose from, and North Scott is leaning toward the “voluntary” model, which means students won’t be required to participate, no attendance will be taken or grades assigned to work.

Students, however, will be strongly encouraged to take part in what will basically a form of online education.

“We will make it very clear to our families, that even though it’s optional, this is essential learning that finishes up the school year for their child,” said Stutting. “We highly recommend that they consider this and follow through with what we’re putting out.”

All parents have been contacted, and school officials have determined that just fewer than 100 students do not have access to the Internet, or a learning device at home.

“Our biggest challenge right now is internet access for families that don’t have it, and also making sure we have a way to get them the device that they need to have,” said Stutting. “We have enough devices, so that won’t be a problem.”

Stutting said that he will be providing Central Scott Telephone with a list of addresses of individuals without Internet access, to see what can be done. He also said Mediacom and other vendors are already providing deals to create opportunities for families to have access.

“We’d rather go the online direction as opposed to delivering educational packets, but it could be a hybrid of both.”

With online learning, elementary teachers could film themselves teaching a lesson, and then students could log on at their convenience, watch the lesson and do the work.

Stutting said North Scott teachers have spent the past two weeks working on how to best provide that service.

“It’s not going to be the same amount of time that kids would be in school, but that’s OK,” he said. “Kids just can’t do that.”

High school and junior high students will have a little different path.

“Because we’re in the middle of a semester, and we want to be able to have kids pass their classes, more than likely we need to make it more mandatory,” said Stutting. “It may start as voluntary, but then switch over. The state is still working on those details.

“For us, we want to make sure the kids have an opportunity to pass their classes to get their credits. We have the local authority to say whatever work they have done will count for the semester, but that will leave them right where they left us.

“But that doesn’t help the kids who might have been behind on their work, and they would be able to catch up. We’re still looking at options in that regard.”

Stutting said that North Scott students who are dual enrolled in college classes started last week.

“We have teachers already teaching online, and students already learning online,” he said. “We are getting close to being able to roll that out to everybody. That’s what we’ll be working on. We want to make sure our staff feels comfortable with what we expect, and what they are able to do.”

Stutting said the high school is in a much better position that many schools, including the district’s elementary buildings, because it is already utilizing an online learning system.

“We’ve already been doing online things within regular classrooms, so it’s a little less of a learning curve for our high school and junior high teachers,” he said.

Stutting said the school district’s staff has worked hard to be ready for what happens next.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our staff, both administrators and teachers,” he said. “They have been working hard to try to figure out how to reach our kids. Not only from the academic standpoint, but also from the emotional standpoint.

“Many of my teachers are home with their own kids, too, and they know the importance of having a routine at home. Those routines are important to our mental health, and to sit at home with no direction is tough.”

Stutting said that all employees have gone above and beyond. Custodians and maintenance personnel are still working, and will continue to do so. Members of the district’s grounds department also haven’t missed a beat.

“We still have a number of people coming into work, including office staff,” said Stutting. “I sure appreciate everybody coming in, not only to keep us up and running, but also to help figure out how we can best help our families.”

 

North Scott School District, Joe Stutting, Kim Reynolds, coronavirus, COVID-19, Iowa Department of Education, Central Scott Telephone, Mediacom, North Scott High School, North Scott Junior High

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