North Thurston offers rosy assessment of remote learning. A parent disagrees
A North Thurston Public Schools board official offered a rosy assessment of remote learning in the district on Tuesday, but a strong counter narrative also emerged during the meeting as the board heard about working parents’ struggles with the requirements of remote learning.
Troy Oliver, assistant superintendent of school leadership, provided the remote learning update to the board, which was based on comments he received from the principal at Olympic View Elementary School.
Oliver relayed the principal’s comments to the board, saying that remote learning attendance was “outstanding,” that teachers and families have stepped up to engage with online learning, and students are “tech savvy.”
But the principal, according to Oliver, also acknowledged that there have been technology challenges and that math is better suited to online learning than English language arts.
A parent, however, offered a very different perspective on remote learning.
The school board, like all local governing bodies, is meeting online because of COVID-19. That means they don’t hear public comment in person, so comments are read aloud, including one from a woman identified as Jenny Benson.
Benson took issue with the district’s approach. “Expectations on parents and students are unreasonable and untenable,” she said, adding that the current structure is overburdening families.
“Parents are losing or quitting jobs in order to meet the expectations of remote learning,” Benson said.
The hours of remote learning conflict with her full-time job. “How do you justify that?” she asked.
When she asked about in-person instruction options, she was referred to the YMCA, which offers a program she can’t afford, she said.
She also said the online learning technology is too difficult for her two children to use, and when adults can’t figure out the system, how can the district expect elementary kids to?
“I’m asking you to be part of the solution, and not the problem, by re-evaluating what you’re asking of students and parents,” she said.
The school board also has two student advisers who were asked for their perspectives on online learning by school board member Chuck Namit.
Samir Amin rated the experience a “6 out of 10.” Natalie Scott said she’s pretty self-directed when it comes to online learning, but her working mother has to balance her job while also teaching Natalie’s younger sister.
School board member Gretchen Maliska also acknowledged the challenges.
“We got kicked out of fourth period and couldn’t get into sixth period,” she said about her own online experience. “It’s a comical example of what is happening with students and parents.”
Maliska said she sympathizes with parents like Benson.
“I do completely understand the parent struggle and intimidation factor,” she said, adding that the board, teachers and district leadership “take those comments really seriously.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
