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by ConVal School Board Member Kevin Pobst
Each May, as sunny days multiply and the end of the school year is just around the corner, sustaining students’ attention to schoolwork becomes more challenging.
A recent survey of ConVal parents and teachers reflects this annual phenomenon, but also shows that there is still a high level of student engagement with their remote learning activities – 80% of parents and teachers say that students are “engaged” to “highly engaged” with remote learning.
The latest survey was sent to parents and teaching staff on May 1; more than 900 responses were received. ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders has summarized the survey results in her “Weekly Update” sent to families and staff on May 8th. You can see the Weekly Update by clicking here.
Good Communication; Manageable Workload. The May survey reports parent and staff responses to multiple-choice questions and records “comments” that respondents add to provide detail. Parent and staff responses to questions about teacher-student communication have been substantially favorable and consistent with results from the first version of the survey administered in early April. Parents give high marks to teacher-parent communication and the teachers express appreciation of good communication by Administrators. Most parents feel that their children are managing the workload for classes, with 85% of respondents sharing that their children were managing “well” to “extremely well.” The shift to four days of instruction has been positive for most families as well as for teachers. Most parents find the challenge-level of assigned work to be appropriate, though, consistent with the April survey, some parents feel there is too little work or that the work is too easy, while a similar percentage say the workload is too heavy and the work too difficult. Additionally, some parents have asked for more small-group or one-to-one interactions with the classroom teacher.
Isolation. Parents were asked to identify areas of additional need. Emotional support for students was far and away the highest priority for parents. Their added comments highlight the social isolation children are experiencing. Some parents are seeking more resources to address children’s social-emotional needs and mental health as well as more online supervised social interaction opportunities for students. In immediate recognition of the need expressed the ConVal school counseling team reviewed emotional support resources that could be recommended to parents. Lists of those resources are available on the ConVal website through the “Remote Learning” tab at convalsd.net.
Technology Challenges. Another parent concern is for support with the remote learning technology. A low, but important, percentage of families still have problems in connecting to the remote learning platforms and in using the various tools. Comments about technology indicate connectivity issues when multiple family members are online, as well as a need for more information about using digital resources, especially Google Classroom. The convalsd.net “Remote Learning” site has information on use of remote learning tools. Despite our best efforts, which have included deploying hundreds of hotspots from both Verizon and US Cellular, internet access continues to be a challenge for some families. Access to devices is growing, as is the ability to stream videos.
If You Need Help. Superintendent Saunders emphasizes that if a family does not have access to a device or the internet to please reach out; ConVal will work with each family to attempt to resolve access and device issues. Also, if a child is struggling academically or emotionally, she encourages parents to communicate directly with their child’s teacher, school counselor, or the principal for suggestions for help.
As Kimberly Saunders noted in her conclusion, “We Are ConVal, and we are ready, willing, and able to assist you as we wind down our school year.”
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We want to thank all the ConVal teachers for all they are doing and making happen for our students and families during this unexpected challenge.
We have always respected our teachers’ dedication, knowledge, passion, and the connections they make with our children. But this year, there are no words that can begin to express how appreciative we are for all that our ConVal teachers are doing.
Thank you!
[post_title] => Thank You, ConVal Teachers, We Appreciate You
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by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
The Covid19 Pandemic has thrust the world into a place it hasn’t seen in the lifetimes of our current generations. To see the changes that we are all struggling with is to see a world-down to the family level – that is challenging all of us to re-evaluate where we have been and where we are going.
School districts across the United States are
reimagining education to be delivered where there is no physical school, no
physical classroom, no physical classroom community. Over the past years, schools have adopted
strategies to maximize their ability to deliver the wider world to their
students by utilizing the internet and online resources as part of their
curriculum. In higher grades, whole courses have been delivered online,
offering wider and more flexible selections to students. There was never an
expectation that remote learning would replace what communities, families,
teachers, and students so highly prize about our physical schools: the
classroom community.
The possibility of whole communities being
shut down was on the horizon with the news of a new coronavirus ravaging Wuhan,
China. On return from February Winter Break, teachers and administrators began
work to shift their classroom curriculum to a format that can be delivered
remotely. The need to re-translate curriculum began on March 14th, and
continues to evolve as the virus has changed how we operate as a community. The
first step was for all school staff to prepare materials for a learning menu in
reading, writing, math, and unified arts, for use at home in the event of an
extended shut down. Classroom lessons had to be translated to a format that
could be delivered in a new medium. At
this point, everyone was still unsure of what the virus would bring, and were
hoping for a two-week hiatus before returning to the school buildings on April
6th. For this three-week period, login information was sent home for any
learning platforms currently in use by classrooms. Teachers and administrators
engaged in a comprehensive “reformatting” of the traditional classroom.
Starting on March 18th (far ahead of many districts) teachers were reformatting
and delivering instruction at the same time – flying the plane while building
it simultaneously. Schools use technology to enhance curriculum, but research
has always confirmed that the most effective and crucial part of education is
the relationship between teacher and student. Principals and teachers explored
how this connection would be communicated in this all remote world, most
importantly for the most vulnerable students – the youngest and special
education students.
Many problems had to be solved. Younger
children require lots of adult supervision, and require free and outdoors time
and exploration that caregivers or parents need to provide. If the parents are
trying to work remotely, this creates serious problems. For 2nd-4th graders,
they may need help in finding sites, logging on, reading instructions, clicking
in the right place, typing answers, staying on task, again, a high degree of
parent involvement. ConVal administration worked on two huge tasks: ensuring
all students had a computer, and all students had internet access. This became
especially crucial as April 6th approached and it was clear that the virus was
only getting started, and the shutdown was going to continue. Students in
grades 5-12 have a personal Chromebook for use in school, due to foresight of
our nine communities in voting for budgets that continuously look forward.
Students in grades PreK-4 have access to home computers only if there is a home
computer. Internet access is a well-publicized problem for our nine-town school
district, and has been the target of planning and legislative efforts over the
past five years for a host of reasons – but now the ability to deliver an
equitable education depended on the ability to ensure all children who needed
one had access to a computer and the internet. The administration, with the
cooperation of internet companies, delivered100 + hotspots along with
additional Chromebooks and other appropriate technology.
At the same time, the question of how to support children and families who had depended on meals that were delivered in school had to be confronted, a need that became very clear as more and more families lost their jobs and their income. The administration immediately stepped up to develop a program where breakfast and lunch would continue to be put together by our food service contract, and delivered by our school busses.
As the shutdown continues, ConVal continues to
learn and adapt. Where the classroom was the predominant platform used to
deliver lessons, the new platform had to be constructed from the available
remote tools, and lessons rearranged to be effectively delivered on this new
platform. The process of moving instruction online is a time consuming and
bumpy process: verbal classroom instructions and reinforcement must be clearly
written in themes and directions, to be delivered by a third party – the
computer. Where any confusion over assignments or lessons could be cleared up
immediately, or with a short pull-out, separate time must now be scheduled.
Teachers must always provide additional access for instructions, feedback, and
follow up. Special education students do not at this point have access to
Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, nurses, or their one-on-one aides.
Administration is developing compensatory services for those students whose
IEP’s require them, ensuring these students will retrieve the progress that they
have made, and allowing them to continue progressing.
There are many styles of delivering remote education; teachers must figure out which matches their curriculum and their students. Some classes depend on morning check-in, some are using Google classroom, Zoom for online live classes, and most post office hours when they are available for student questions and help. Online resources must be curated for appropriate content, level, and support to the lesson.
At the same time, there are efforts towards the developing structure and a community environment of their school and classroom. Teachers are constantly assessing and measuring the amount their students are mastering, the level of their engagement. The social-emotional aspect of children feeling secure in their environment is one of the most important underlying facilitators of learning. Online lectures don’t work – teachers must devise other ways for lessons to be delivered. One of the most powerful learning strategies included in every classroom is the ability of students to support and mentor each other. The biggest challenge is creating this online community that will engage and allow collaboration across the class. Other challenges include measuring engagement, managing behavior, and dealing with overloaded platforms. Presentations must be crafted for on-demand relearning or rescheduling.
Classroom environment and curriculum cannot
always be transferred online--especially for PreK-through grade 2, and for
students with special needs. For those parts of the district that have weak or
no bandwidth to support online technology, it's not possible. Students who live in dead zones have no
access to the school at all. For those students, the lessons must be translated
a third way – hard copy packets. These packets of a day’s lesson must be
copied, collated and sent to students on a weekly basis.
ConVal is well-positioned to meet these challenges as they have an administration and teachers who have previously completed work in integrating technology in their curriculum delivery. That is not to minimize the challenge of-overnight-switching from using technology as part of a classroom model to using technology as a classroom. That is a heavy lift, and the work continues as there is no clear end in sight.
[post_title] => How ConVal Is Managing Remote Learning
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The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the ConVal School District are not clear.
The Administration and School Board are in the process of determining the impacts but, at this time, there are many unknowns. The effects of remote instruction can be increased expenses in some budget lines and potential cost savings in others.
As soon as accurate estimates of these costs and savings are known, they will be communicated to towns and citizens in a timely fashion. Please see this document for details on the budget mechanics as well as some questions and answers regarding potential budget impacts.
[post_title] => The Effects Of COVID-19 On The ConVal Budget
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by ConVal School Board Member Kevin Pobst
Each May, as sunny days multiply and the end of the school year is just around the corner, sustaining students’ attention to schoolwork becomes more challenging.
A recent survey of ConVal parents and teachers reflects this annual phenomenon, but also shows that there is still a high level of student engagement with their remote learning activities – 80% of parents and teachers say that students are “engaged” to “highly engaged” with remote learning.
The latest survey was sent to parents and teaching staff on May 1; more than 900 responses were received. ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders has summarized the survey results in her “Weekly Update” sent to families and staff on May 8th. You can see the Weekly Update by clicking here.
Good Communication; Manageable Workload. The May survey reports parent and staff responses to multiple-choice questions and records “comments” that respondents add to provide detail. Parent and staff responses to questions about teacher-student communication have been substantially favorable and consistent with results from the first version of the survey administered in early April. Parents give high marks to teacher-parent communication and the teachers express appreciation of good communication by Administrators. Most parents feel that their children are managing the workload for classes, with 85% of respondents sharing that their children were managing “well” to “extremely well.” The shift to four days of instruction has been positive for most families as well as for teachers. Most parents find the challenge-level of assigned work to be appropriate, though, consistent with the April survey, some parents feel there is too little work or that the work is too easy, while a similar percentage say the workload is too heavy and the work too difficult. Additionally, some parents have asked for more small-group or one-to-one interactions with the classroom teacher.
Isolation. Parents were asked to identify areas of additional need. Emotional support for students was far and away the highest priority for parents. Their added comments highlight the social isolation children are experiencing. Some parents are seeking more resources to address children’s social-emotional needs and mental health as well as more online supervised social interaction opportunities for students. In immediate recognition of the need expressed the ConVal school counseling team reviewed emotional support resources that could be recommended to parents. Lists of those resources are available on the ConVal website through the “Remote Learning” tab at convalsd.net.
Technology Challenges. Another parent concern is for support with the remote learning technology. A low, but important, percentage of families still have problems in connecting to the remote learning platforms and in using the various tools. Comments about technology indicate connectivity issues when multiple family members are online, as well as a need for more information about using digital resources, especially Google Classroom. The convalsd.net “Remote Learning” site has information on use of remote learning tools. Despite our best efforts, which have included deploying hundreds of hotspots from both Verizon and US Cellular, internet access continues to be a challenge for some families. Access to devices is growing, as is the ability to stream videos.
If You Need Help. Superintendent Saunders emphasizes that if a family does not have access to a device or the internet to please reach out; ConVal will work with each family to attempt to resolve access and device issues. Also, if a child is struggling academically or emotionally, she encourages parents to communicate directly with their child’s teacher, school counselor, or the principal for suggestions for help.
As Kimberly Saunders noted in her conclusion, “We Are ConVal, and we are ready, willing, and able to assist you as we wind down our school year.”
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What's Happening
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by ConVal School Board Member Kevin Pobst
Each May, as sunny days multiply and the end of the school year is just around the corner, sustaining students’ attention to schoolwork becomes more challenging.
A recent survey of ConVal parents and teachers reflects this annual phenomenon, but also shows that there is still a high level of student engagement with their remote learning activities – 80% of parents and teachers say that students are “engaged” to “highly engaged” with remote learning.
We want to thank all the ConVal teachers for all they are doing and making happen for our students and families during this unexpected challenge.
We have always respected our teachers’ dedication, knowledge, passion, and the connections they make with our children. But this year, there are no words that can begin to express how appreciative we are for all that our ConVal teachers are doing.
by ConVal School Board Member Janine Lesser
The Covid19 Pandemic has thrust the world into a place it hasn’t seen in the lifetimes of our current generations. To see the changes that we are all struggling with is to see a world-down to the family level – that is challenging all of us to re-evaluate where we have been and where we are going.
The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the ConVal School District are not clear.
The Administration and School Board are in the process of determining the impacts but, at this time, there are many unknowns. The effects of remote instruction can be increased expenses in some budget lines and potential cost savings in others.
Upcoming Events
2019-2020 School Board Goals
- Review and modify ConVal’s present strategic plan by March 2020 in preparation for beginning “ConVal 2025” Strategic plan.
- Monitor, evaluate, and support continuous improvement related to equity between the two middle schools, and the mathematical program at the ConVal High School.
- Provide the resources necessary to implement the universal preschool program.
- Review the administration’s report on the implications of students graduating with multiple credentials including but not limited to an Associate Degree or workplace certification through community and educational partnerships and decide the next steps for the District by March 2020.
- Continue focus on a comprehensive board communication plan with additional emphasis on the development of a fiscally responsible district budget.