Schools across Metro Atlanta will be opening next month. What’s the plan for DeKalb Schools?
DeKalb Schools’ new fearless leader, Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris, and her team will be presenting the School Re-Opening Plan at the July 13 board meeting. At this time, I don’t have any advanced knowledge of what the plan may look like. I am as eager as everyone else to see what is presented on Monday.
DeKalb Schools Opening Day: I expect DeKalb Schools to push back opening day to Aug 17.
Virtual Instruction – Note: There are two types of virtual instruction. DeKalb Flex Academy and Forsyth Virtual Academy are on online schools separate from the brick and mortal schools. These virtual schools have their own course work and teachers.
The other type of virtual learning is where you have the same teacher and course work as the in-person traditional learning, but you are in that class virtually on that day. A teacher shared with me this week that she attended “Virtual Summer Camp” on how to conduct live virtual lessons via Microsoft Teams. She went on to say, “We were given daily Power Points, a schedule, with time for independent learning.”
I wasn’t able to ascertain what type of virtual learning some of the school districts are offering. I’m also not sure how viable it is for teachers to have in-person and virtual classes at the same time. Clayton schools will be on an A/B schedule with half of their students in-person and half of their students virtual Mon – Thur. Not quite sure of the logistics of that.
Here is what the other school districts in the Metro Atlanta are doing.
Atlanta Public Schools (APS) – APS has a new superintendent as well. School is currently scheduled to start on Aug 10, but they have not released any details of how they will open.
Clayton County – Clayton has not pushed their start date back and will open Aug 3. Clayton county will follow the moderate risk plan with half the students going on Mondays and Wednesdays and the other half the students on Tuesday and Thursday.
Cobb County – Cobb has pushed their start date back to Aug 17. Parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote virtual instruction.
Fayette County – Fayette will open Aug 10. Parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote virtual instruction. Remote virtual instruction will be scheduled real time lessons combined with asynchronous learning experiences. Attendance and student online engagement will be recorded. Assignments will be graded, and grading practices appropriate for a full-time virtual classroom will be developed.
Forsyth County – Forsyth will open Aug 6. Grades 6 – 12 may attend the Forsyth Virtual Academy. K – 5 parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote virtual instruction. The K-5 virtual option is still being developed.
Fulton County – It is speculated that Fulton County schools will push back their start date to Aug 17. Fulton parents, however, will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote virtual instruction.
Gwinnett Schools – Gwinnett met earlier this week to push back their start date to Aug 12. Parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or at home digital learning.
Hall County – Hall County will start Aug 7 with in-person traditional instruction. Parents and students may utilize Hall County Schools’ Virtual Learning Platform (a full-time online experience).
Henry County – Henry will start Aug 3. Parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote learning classes from home.
Marietta City – Marietta City Schools will start Aug 4. Parents will be able to choose from in-person traditional instruction or remote virtual instruction. 20% of the parents indicated in a survey that they wanted a virtual environment. Marietta City Schools is in the process of building virtual classes and assigning virtual teachers.
Rockdale County – Rockdale will have a soft opening on Aug 24 with all students doing remote virtual instruction. The first official day of school will be Sept 8 with a Hybrid Model of in-person and virtual (Independent) learning to reduce the number of students in the buildings at one time. Details pertaining to the Hybrid Model and Independent Learning will be out in the coming days and weeks.
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DeKalb Schools Re-Opening Update
July 5, 2020 – Will DeKalb Schools open on August 3rd as planned and what will learning look like when DeKalb Schools opens? Marshall Orson is currently the chair of the DeKalb Schools Board of Education. He addresses some of the most frequently asked questions about opening DeKalb Schools in the Fall.
DeKalb Schools Re-Opening Framework
June 20, 2020 – DeKalb Schools Re-Opening School Task Force built a framework to serve as a transition document to the new Superintendent for final decisions on how to re-open on the first day of school on Aug 3, 2020.
CDC’s Considerations For Schools
May 23, 2020 – Spacing recommendations are going to be particularly burdensome for students and teachers in District 1 given the persistent overcrowding in this area. The arithmetic of students, bus seats, and square footage make it difficult to balance the equation.
Virtual Classrooms – The Future of DeKalb Schools
May 16, 2020 – There is still no definitive plan for what school will look like when it opens in August.
However, DeKalb Schools is full speed ahead planning on school in traditional classrooms as well as Virtual Classrooms.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”