Thurston County school districts regroup for extended COVID-19 shutdown
It started about a month ago, when Gov. Jay Inslee closed public and private K-12 schools through April 24 in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by a new coronavirus. Then, on April 6, the governor extended the closures through the end of the 2019-20 school year, requiring districts across Washington state to adjust to the reality of longer-term distance learning.
Thurston County’s three biggest districts — Olympia, North Thurston, and Tumwater — had offered resources to bridge the gap until in-person instruction was expected to start back up in late April. But now, like all other districts, they’re tasked with preparing each student to take their next step, whether that be a new grade level or graduation, with buildings closed.
Providing ‘critical services’
Initial direction from the state included that districts must provide “critical services,” including free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch, as well as child care.
Local districts have partnered with the Boys & Girls Club and YMCA to provide child care services and have been handing out grab-and-go lunches and breakfasts at sites across the county.
North Thurston Public Schools is running sites at 14 of its schools and 20 drop-off sites; Olympia School District is running sites at 13 of its schools and 10 community sites; Tumwater is running four meal pick-up locations. Anyone under age 18 can pick up meals, regardless of school enrollment, according to the districts.
North Thurston is also offering its families grab-and-go hygiene bags, food, and warm clothing two days per week at its Family Youth Resource Center on Sleater Kinney Road Northeast, according to the NTPS website.
Capital Region ESD 113, which supports all of Thurston County’s school districts, has compiled a map showing where grab-and-go and drop off/meal delivery are available at https://www.esd113.org/family-services-map/.
‘Continuous learning’
The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) expected schools to begin providing educational services by March 30. In a bulletin March 23, OSPI provided that timeline and broad “guiding principles” for districts.
Since the April 6 extension of school closures, the agency has posted more resources and guidance, including a 75+-page document with “continuous learning” resources and planning tools such as sample daily schedules. It defines continuous learning as “establishing and maintaining connections with students and families to provide learning materials and supports using a variety of modalities,” such as email, printed materials, and online platforms.
“Each school district will make many local decisions that are unique to their student and educator populations and available resources,” the document reads. “The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) encourages districts to develop and implement continuous learning plans in partnership with students, families, staff, and local health departments when appropriate.”
As one might expect, Thurston County’s three biggest districts were at varying stages of transition when The Olympian reached out to superintendents last week, when all the districts were on Spring Break, to find out how districts are planning to complete their mission of educating students without using classrooms.
Their first step: connecting with students and staff
Building by building, Tumwater is confirming connections with students, according to Superintendent Sean Dotson. He said an online survey kicked things off — students and families who responded were confirmed connected.
Staff then started going through the list of people who didn’t respond, to see if they just missed the survey or if they could connect by phone or other means, Dotson said.
By last week, all three districts had started distributing Chromebooks to elementary school students; middle and high school students already had them.
As of early last week, North Thurston Public Schools (NTPS) Superintendent Debra Clemens said NTPS, where OSPI data shows about 15,700 students are enrolled, had provided the laptops to all fourth- and fifth-graders who needed them and was moving on to supplying third graders.
At the Olympia School District, where about 10,500 students are enrolled, Superintendent Patrick Murphy said there were enough Chromebooks in its inventory for all elementary students who need them.
And in Tumwater, where about 6,500 students are enrolled, Superintendent Dotson said all students who needed a Chromebook would soon have one.
The Chromebooks work well, Dotson said, if the student has access to the Internet.
The districts had to ensure staff have a way to get online and have tried to ensure students have access, in one way or another — encouraging families to take advantage with internet deals offered by companies such as Comcast and handing out hotspots.
Marc Elliott, OSD’s Chief Information Officer, said Olympia was circulating about 85 hotspots, which can only be used with the district’s devices, for students to connect at home before the shutdown. There were more in stock, and his department ordered extras right before COVID-19 hit.
The district has 220 or so hotspots out in the community right now, Elliott said, but it’s still a little short and help-desk staff have been calling each individual family who requested one to be sure they truly need it.
The deals offered by telecommunications companies will expire, Elliott said, and it’s up to families to remember to cancel before they get a bill. He said the Olympia district has made that information available, but that frightens him.
“I don’t want to push something on a family who honestly can’t afford it,” he told The Olympian.
The hotspots also aren’t a panacea. They use a cellular connection, so they won’t help students who live in areas without a signal, such as Boston Harbor.
“That’s a problem, because it’s not their fault that they live there, but we can’t get them a signal at all,” Elliott said. Olympia offers public, filtered Wi-Fi at its schools if students need to pull up in the parking lot to connect. But Elliott stressed that the district strongly recommends people respect social distancing and not congregate to access the internet.
When The Olympian touched base with Dotson last week, Tumwater was working on confirming connection with each individual student, internet or no internet. Dotson said much of his 118-square-mile district is rural.
He said that once the district connects with a student, even if they don’t have an Internet connection, the district can work with them, dropping off paper packets, offering papers at meal distribution sites, or even sending them through the mail.
“There’s a way for everyone,” Dotson said. “We have to make that connection to know how.”
Starting remote instruction
Tumwater teachers have started providing instruction, Dotson said, but it’s mostly been reviewing previous concepts. Students are learning, they have materials and teachers are connecting with kids, he said.
Before moving forward with new material, though, he said the district wants to meet a “critical mass of connection” — establishing connection with somewhere between 85% and 95% of students. No firm date to start instruction had been set as of last week.
“Whatever it takes, we’ll find a way, we just have to determine what those best methods are for each of our kids,” Dotson said.
Both OSD and NTPS were gearing up last week for the transition to teaching new content, assessing student work, and providing feedback.
Olympia started teaching new content Monday, according to district spokesperson Susan Gifford, and all classes will have a more formal assessment process in place by next Monday.
Teachers have the flexibility to take students’ unique circumstances into account, OSD Superintendent Murphy said, such as high school teachers issuing pass/fail grades instead of letter grades. Elliott said every secondary student already was having some interaction with the district’s online learning management platform, Schoology, before COVID-19 hit.
Everything at OSD will be done online, Murphy said, but the district will find other options for families who don’t have access. The younger the student, the more likely learning will be less online and more with traditional pencil and paper, he said, but how materials will be delivered was to be determined as of last week.
Also unclear, in both districts, were strategies for reaching students in special education and who are learning English as a second language. Murphy says so far it’s been a lot of outreach, phone calls, and connections with those students. He said the district will do everything it can to make this time as equitable as possible, but that there will probably be gaps in learning and some catching up to do.
It’s an imperfect, “continuous improvement model,” Murphy said, that will require surveying staff, families, and students — then adjusting and fixing.
North Thurston staff have been developing remote learning guidelines since OSPI put out its initial guidance March 20, Clemens said. At each grade level, teachers last week were putting together plans for this first week of instruction and providing it to parents, according to Clemens.
In the grades with Chromebooks, there are a lot of online opportunities, she said, but Clemens acknowledged some families may need paper materials and the district has the structure in place to distribute those at its many lunch sites.
For the first week, kindergarten through second graders are receiving printed versions of their learning packets, along with “enrichment activities” online, she said, and secondary teachers are planning structured class periods and office hours when they can assist students.
“It’s a steep learning curve, but I really believe that over the next few weeks we’re going to be learning a lot, problem-solving where we need to support our teachers and support our students and our families,” Clemens said.
Teachers tackle the challenge
Jenny Kassil, who teaches physics and robotics at North Thurston High School, calls herself a “tech-forward person.”
Kassil has been helping her fellow NTPS teachers get used to the tools they’ll be using to connect with students online. Her YouTube channel is full of how-to videos ranging from how to make a quiz on Canvas, an online learning management platform, to how to turn off “reply-all” on Outlook’s web application.
“One thought that’s occurred to me is that not every student is served by a traditional classroom environment in the first place,” Kassil told The Olympian. “None of the learning and work that we’re doing right now will be wasted in the future.”
Last week, Kassil posted a video titled “Welcome to Remote Learning with Mrs. Kassil,” in which she addresses students and lays out a plan: Mondays are for basic instruction such as a video or assigned reading, Tuesdays through Thursdays are for practicing and exploration such as a lab or questions that go along with the reading, and Fridays are for quizzes.
She also lays out her office hours: She and her husband, who is also a teacher, are taking care of a 2-year-old and 5-month-old at home, so they can’t be available on demand.
Kassil told The Olympian that when students log into Canvas, they’ll see a homepage that has all of her contact information, and a banner says whether she’s online or off-line. That was an intentional move on her part.
“Lots of students don’t raise their hand in the classroom until a teacher walks by,” she said.
Teachers in her area throughout the district, she said, are almost all doing the same thing, as far as how they’re setting up instruction and communicating with students — many had done virtual video class meetings, all were emailing. As of last week, she felt everyone was ready to go, putting finishing touches on plans.
“If I have one tagline for everything, it would be that none of us will give up, because this is what teachers do, we don’t give up on kids,” Kassil said.
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This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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