School leaders address Covid challenges

Manila Superintendent Jason Evers said the first semester has definitely been a challenge for the school district. 

“We had hopes that we would see a significant decline in COVID related numbers this week, but overall we still have around 100 out for quarantine, and 10 of those are actual positive cases from staff and students,” Evers said. “We have seen a decline in grades, mainly due to students not completing work that has been required to do at home, while they were on blended instruction.  We know face to face instruction is more effective than blended, but our first priority right now is staff and student health and safety.  That is why we are giving students the option this week to attend on site or blended.  This helps keep our numbers on campus a little lower and allows for much better social distancing.”

Meanwhile, Gosnell School District will continue with the same plans for virtual and face-to-face learning for the spring semester following Christmas break.

After starting the school year with around 30 percent of their students online, the district has seen that number fall to approximately 20 percent now ,according to District Curriculum Coordinator Anita McKinney. Gosnell schools have also provided hotspots to households in need of internet access for students and still have roughly 30 available. In case of a school closure, or even one student being quarantined, hotspots can still be borrowed by calling the high school office. For those online students, teachers will continue to post assessments and videos in Google Classroom. There, students can access their assignments and also get videos of their teachers explaining the lesson. However, the virtual students are monitored online by facilitators to assist the classroom teachers on covering both online and face-to-face students. Still, if a student has further questions or needs a deep explanation of the lesson, the teacher can still be contacted directly online.

In the case of a teacher being quarantined, in-person learners can still remain with their method of choice. If the teacher isn’t showing symptoms, they connect with the students through Google Meet at their normally scheduled class time.

“They are actually teaching from home while the kids are at school. That’s worked out pretty well, our teachers have enjoyed being able to still see their kids and talk to them and teach them when they can’t be on campus,” McKinney said.

Armorel Superintendent Tiffany Morgan said the district will continue to enforce social distancing and the wearing of face coverings throughout the school and during school activities.

Teachers will continue to have assignments that allow for students who wish to continue learning using the virtual format to do so.

As of Monday, the number of Covid positives and quarantine within the school are down considerably.

Currently they have two staff members and three students who are quarantining and/or have tested positive.

When asked about declining grades due to the changes due to Covid-19, Ms. Morgan said, “due to the diligence of our teachers, parent contacts have been made to students with missing assignments or who have performed poorly on an assignment. Our number of students with declining grades is not much worse than in a typical year.”

Riverside Superintendent Jeff Priest said they are pleased to make it through the Thanksgiving break without any of the three campuses having to pivot to virtual instruction. Riverside High School will be virtual this week due to the number of faculty and staff being quarantined and a shortage of subs. Priest said, “Riverside East and West Elementary will continue with onsite instruction and we look forward to having all three campuses back onsite next week. It has been trying, exhausting, and stressful but our faculty and staff have continued to educate and meet the needs of our students at such a high level. This school year has been unchartered territory for everyone but I am extremely grateful to the Riverside Community for their cooperation and support of our faculty, staff, and students. We plan on finishing the semester strong and look forward to seeing what 2021 has in store for us. #RebelsRaiseTheBar!”