A screenshot from last month shows Crestwood School District Superintendent Robert Mehalick outlining school re-opening plans in a video posed on the district’s Facebook page. Crestwood High School students will learn at home the first few weeks through live online lessons in much the same way they would in school, with eight periods per day, officials announced Thursday.
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This screen shot from the Crestwood School Board virtual meeting held Thursday shows the proposed schedule for high school students learning live remotely this fall. It keeps the periods students are familiar with but trims them from 45 minutes to 30, shifting that time to morning “teacher office hours” so students can schedule virtual talks with a teacher.
WRIGHT TWP. — Crestwood High School students will learn at home the first few weeks through live online lessons in much the same way they would in school, with eight periods per day (one of them lunch), Principal Peg Foster explained during a virtual School Board meeting Thursday.
But there will be one big difference: The periods are being cut from 45 minutes each to 30 minutes each.
The time cut from the periods will be used to give all teachers virtual “office hours” every morning from 7:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. so students can arrange appointments to discuss any issues as the online-only system develops. The switch means academic classes will start later in the day, at 9:30 instead of 7:40.
“This lets them move through a structure they are familiar with,” Foster said, “and they can still chat with the teacher.”
In many cases, Foster said, teachers will go over a lesson for the first 15 minutes of the shortened period, then remain in the virtual classroom but have the students work alone or collaboratively. The system is flexible though, and time spent by the teacher can vary depending on how things are going.
The plan also lets students work in small groups virtually, something Board Member Barry Boone praised, noting that when he taught math he frequently had the students work in groups to good effect.
Crestwood had planned on opening with a hybrid system that would have some students learn in the classroom while others learned at home at the same time via live-streaming. Superintendent Bob Mehalick announced last week that circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic made the re-opening committee change the recommendation to have remote-only learning until at least Oct. 1.
Students have two options: Learning live with district teachers online, or joining the district cyber academy, which provides asynchronous class work through the online learning company Edmentum. At the start of Thursday’s meeting, Mehalick said 651 students have enrolled in the district cyber academy, with about 350 of them in grades kindergarten through sixth. The deadline for enrolling in the cyber academy is noon this Friday, Aug. 21
Mehalick then asked Foster to explain how the synchronous, live distance learning would work at the high school, and she discussed the use of shortened periods. She said students and teachers will log in for each period and log out, with a virtual period bell ringing to further give the feel of a regular school day.
The periods will be held using Google Meet, which Foster said means “They can talk to each other the same as in school, just over the computer.
Mehalick said school is still set to start Sept. 2, but because of the move to remote only, the first two days will be “student prep” days to make sure all students have everything they need, and that “the technology is in place and working.”
The district is still in the process of getting a Chromebook computer to each student, he added, with more pick-up times being scheduled for next week at the high school cafeteria. As if to demonstrate both the shortcomings and resilience of working together online, the School Board live-stream on YouTube went silent and stopped working for a short spell, then came back up after a short break.
The district has held 10 “town hall” virtual meetings with families enrolling in the cyber academy, and Mehalick promised a similar meeting next week with parents of children in elementary grades to explain how the live remote learning will work for them.
Mehalick also said the district will continue to distribute meals to all students, at the same distribution points used in the spring when the state ordered all schools closed beginning March 16: The high school, the Slocum Township Fire building, and the White Haven Library.
There is a difference regarding meal distribution this fall compared.
During the spring months, meals were given to all students for free. Mehalick said this time free meals will only be given to those eligible for the federal free and reduced lunch program. Others will have to pay as they would when students are in the schools. But he stressed that all cash transactions would be done on line, so no one will be able to tell if a student is picking up a free meal or one they paid for.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish