By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(May 28, 2020) Worcester County Public School students are continuing to learn with a high online activity rate of 85 percent amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Operating Officer Dr. Annette Wallace told the county’s board of education members during its monthly teleconference meeting on Tuesday, May 19, that around 98 percent of students have internet access, whether through means of their own or hotspots acquired by the board.

Dr. Annette Wallace

A majority of students have been using an online learning management system called Schoology.

“Our Schoology usage has decreased a little bit over the past weeks,” she said. “But we’re very proud to say that 85 percent of our students are actively logging on and participating on Schoology as of this week. And the other 15 percent of students are receiving packets and teachers are working with their students and making sure that they are supporting them.”

Teachers are currently not able to collect packets to be graded, so the school system has been monitoring them in other ways.

Wallace also acknowledged the difficulties younger students who might not be able to read yet and the strain that puts on their parents as well as the tasks ahead for high school students who might be resuming work once more businesses reopen.

“We recognize that those are challenges out there,” she said. “I would remind the board and anyone else who might be listening that we do have supports in place and have office hours where parents can contact [us] and get extra help for their students. Also, we have a variety of ways that parents or students experiencing technical issues can get in touch with.”

The Help Desk is one of several tools available on http://worcesterk12.org/home where parents, students and faculty can reach out for assistance with technical issues. In addition, the board is offering online counseling for students of all 14 schools.

Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor praised parents, students and teachers alike for their dedication to education amidst the covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve gone through eight weeks of this,” Taylor said during the meeting. “And I just want to say how proud I am of our teachers and our entire staff, but also our parents and students who are in the midst of challenging circumstances and are still showing up, are still engaging, and hopefully, we believe are still learning.”

Wallace finished the report with her own thoughts on the success of the Continuity of Learning Plan.

“We feel really good about where we are,” she said. “We believe that we have some of the best teachers in this state. We know that when we get our students back in school that we are going to fill all of those gaps that have occurred and we are going to make sure that we get our students where they need to be. We have all the confidence in the world in our teachers, and I think that’s the message that we want our community to hear as well: that everyone is doing the best they can in a very challenging time.

“It’s a challenge for our teachers,” Wallace continued. “It’s a challenge for our students and it’s a challenge for our parents because our parents aren’t certified teachers. And certainly, we know that we hear from them sometimes that they’re struggling with figuring all of this out. But, we are making a commitment to everyone that when we get back that we are going to be better than ever.”