Franklin Regional gets update from its ‘back-to-school task force’
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The Franklin Regional school board will hold a special meeting in July to lay out plans for how education will work in the 2020-21 school year.
That meeting date has not been set yet, but members of the district’s back-to-school task force updated the board Monday night on their work.
“We’re going to move through different phrases, and we have to be prepared for all scenarios,” said school director Mark Kozlosky, who is working with a group focused on elementary education.
“Our approach was tackling the most difficult option we had, and going into spring, that was the move to an online component,” Kozlosky said. “We had to move very quickly … we want to improve that situation.”
At the elementary level, Kozlosky said concern was focused on the one-on-one teacher interaction that elementary students frequently receive, “and on how we can close the gaps we have in the online platform.”
At the middle school level, director Deb Wohlin said the group discussed speeding up the process of equipping all district students with a Google Chromebook – a process that began this past school year at the high-school level – and talked with school counselors about how to reach students who were not engaging with their teachers and classes during online learning sessions.
Wohlin also said the district’s special-education staff “has really done an excellent job in engaging those students.”
“We thought it would be difficult getting those students what they needed, but the staff has been really creative in trying to meet their needs,” Wohlin said.
School director Paul Scheinert, who worked with the high school group, said a uniform approach to online learning will be a key component of whatever form the 2020-21 school year takes.
“Because our teachers needed to get up to speed in a hurry, they didn’t all use the same training platform,” Scheinert said. “You’d have one method for one course, and then they’d go to a different teacher with a different method for that course.”
All three directors agreed that professional development for teachers and staff would be crucial.
“The goal is to have direct and online learning methods thoroughly understood, so students can be trained in their use during the first week of school,” Scheinert said.
Kozlosky said the district needs to prepare a variety of ways for students to start the year.
“We know there will be some parents who are not comfortable bringing their children back in the fall,” he said. “We may have a hybrid situation, where we may go from red to green. We just don’t know.”
He added that a survey will be sent to district parents in the coming weeks to gauge their thoughts about this spring’s online instruction.
“We want to improve what we present and provide to you,” Kozlosky said.
For the latest school district news, see FRSDk12.org.