By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(April 9, 2020) Ever since Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen Salmon announced on March 26 that schools would remain closed for an additional four weeks, Worcester County Public School officials have been preparing parents and students with online learning material they can use at home.

Using an online management system called Schoology, Worcester County Public School’s Continuity of Learning Plan went into effect Monday, March 30, for high school students in AP courses or dual enrollment.

Remaining high schoolers began that Tuesday, and middle school and elementary school students began their own Continuity of Learning Plan courses on Monday.

Carrie Sterrs

“We firmly believe that every student deserves and needs to continue their education in whatever way we are able to provide it,” Public Relations and Special Events Coordinator Carrie Sterrs said. “Just as we strive to meet students’ basic needs through our feeding program, we must meet those more complex needs, like social-emotional well-being through our counseling services or instructional needs through Continuity of Learning.”

The board of education has created a parent guide on its website at http://worcesterk12.org/home named Parent Guide that lays out the groundwork to help parents understand the requirements of a Continuity of Learning environment.

For high school students, total time spent on each class, including reading, homework, and work towards long-term assignments, should not exceed 75 minutes for non-college-level classes and 90 minutes for college-level classes.

For middle school students, total class engagement time includes 60 minutes per day for literacy and mathematics courses, 30 minutes per day for science and social studies, 90 minutes per week for art, music, physical education, health and media, 30 minutes each Tuesday for Tech Tuesday and 30 minutes each Wednesday for Wellness Wednesday.

For elementary school students, online learning experiences per day are intended to not exceed more than an hour and a half, as the board recognizes families may have more than one child to guide.

“Our parent guide breaks out learning time frames by grade … indicating how much time per day or week will be dedicated to subject areas,” Sterrs said.

Students will be graded by teachers based on their assessments of a student’s progress.

The guide also offers advice for what roles and responsibilities students and parents have supporting the learning environment.

Parents can help support their children in their studies by engaging in conversations on materials and assignments and monitoring time spent in online and offline learning.

The board has also considered the importance of providing computer technology for students who may not have internet or computer access at home.

On Wednesday, April 1, the principal and vice principal of Berlin Intermediate School signed out laptops to parents from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. In the future, it will also be handing out internet hotspot devices once they are made available.

“Each school has surveyed families to find out what students and teachers need devices and or connectivity, and we are working as quickly as possible to deploy devices to those in need,” Sterrs said.

The board also is looking into options for those who do not have any internet access.

“We are in the process of acquiring additional hotspot devices to deploy to students and teachers that have limited internet connectivity,” Sterrs said. “However, we understand that there are rural regions in our county that, despite having a hotspot and device, connectivity is simply not available.

“For these students, we are going to provide a paper packet option. We are also looking into expanding internet connectivity outside of our schools, including our parking lot areas.”

Superintendent of Schools Lou Taylor addressed the technology issue during an emergency Board of Education phone conference on Tuesday, March 31.

“There’s been a lot of work that goes into the distribution of computers, and making sure that we have Internet access,” Taylor said. “That still seems to be one of our challenges, but we’re going to face it head on. We have approximately 180 hot spots available.

“We do have some challenges getting some of our kids who don’t have Internet access and or have a device,” he continued. “But our staff are working hard to make sure we’re reaching out to individual students, not just making a blanket statement to get them the device, even if we have to find a way to deliver that. We’re going to do everything we can to get that device to them immediately.”

Sterrs and Taylor advise parents and students to continue being patient.

“We’d like to ask our families to please be patient with us and themselves,” Sterrs said. “This is new territory for everyone, and while there will be challenges along the way, we will do the best we are able to keep our students engaged in learning for the duration of this closure.”

Taylor also celebrated the first week of online learning for high school students with a message to the public last Friday.

“Being able to begin continuity of learning so quickly is a testament to the incredible work of our teachers, instructional and school leaders, and our staff, who truly mobilized our plans to launch us forward with device and hotspot distribution, trainings, and more,” he said.

“Distance learning is new for all of us, and while our educators have been working hard to learn new techniques to provide ongoing, engaging learning experiences for your child, we also understand that many of you are navigating how to be facilitators of learning in your own homes,” Taylor continued. “There will undoubtedly be challenges along this journey, but we will persevere through them … together.”

If parents or students have issues with Schoology or other technology-based problems, they can reach out to the Worcester County Public Schools website, www.worcesterk12.org to request assistance, or call 302-466-5329, 434-535-1477, or 410-635-1042 to reach a HELPDESK representative.