Clark County’s most rural school district will continue remote learning in the fall, though its superintendent says its staff will face unique obstacles and challenges.
The Green Mountain School District board unanimously approved a reopening plan for the 2020-2021 school year on Aug. 11. The district outside of Woodland serves about 160 kindergarten through eighth-grade students, in an area where internet access is limited.
The district will start the school year with a focus on remote learning, with limited in-person instruction for small groups of students with high needs, including students receiving special education services or those who are from low income families.
“Those students that are furthest from educational justice or highest in academic need, that’s who we’d like to prioritize,” District Superintendent Tyson Vogeler said.
Vogeler added one of the district’s biggest challenges is access to the internet. Unlike larger, more urban districts that will offer live instruction to students, Vogeler said the district will have to provide students with pre-prepared material.
“With the rural nature of our district, and it has to do with topography and infrastructure, we estimate that 80 percent of our students do not have adequate internet to be able to do (live) remote learning,” Vogeler said.
It’s a model the district developed last school year. Teachers put instructional videos on flash drives, accompanied with a detailed learning packets full of worksheets and additional resources, and then delivered them to students throughout the district each week.
The district will also provide laptops to all students in fourth grade or older.
Vogeler said the district will be doing it’s best to follow a typical schedule of 8:20 a.m. to 2:50 p.m., but recognizes many families will be working on an alternate schedule as they try to juggle responsibilities during this uncertain time.
Grading will remain the same for the coming school year, with elementary school students receiving numerical grades and middle school students following traditional A through F grading. Attendance will be based on students completing their work each week.
Vogeler said he is looking forward to returning to in-person education when conditions allow it.
“I think, like most educators and administrators believe, kids are going to learn best in a face- to- face situation,” Vogeler said.
In the meantime, Vogeler said he is concerned about students’ emotional well-being. He said he’s driven to return to the classroom for the sake of the whole child, not only their academic success.
“I think kids, as resilient as they are, they will be more resilient academically than they will be emotionally and socially,” Vogeler said.
