CCSD trustees hear presentation for end of school year and beyond

When Clark County School District students go back to their classrooms, it may be on a staggered bell schedule or through alternate programming such as partly online learning in order to promote social distancing, according to new plans presented Thursday to the School Board.

New details on the district’s plans for the end of the school year and beyond did not include a target date for reopening after Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered school buildings closed indefinitely, but the district outlined a series of steps to finish the year and possibilities for what 2021 may look like.

The district will continue to provide meals at food distribution sites through June 30, but it’s possible to extend the service beyond that date with more federal Department of Agriculture funding, according to district Chief of Staff Christopher Bernier. The district is serving approximately 30,000 meals per day, according to the presentation.

It also will continue to provide distance learning by paper packet and online means through the end of the year, with a new initiative to contact students who haven’t been in touch with their teachers since schools closed. The state Department of Education mandates that students be reached by educators at least once per week or be marked absent.

The district reported at an April 16 board meeting that at least 95,000 students were not reached by educators in the week before spring break. Since then, the district has asked teachers to document instances of two-way contact rather than only one-way contact — numbers that will be available Friday after they’re submitted to the Department of Education, district representatives said.

To reach its missing students, the district has deployed attendance officers and social workers to perform wellness checks by going door-to-door to their homes.

In a pilot of the program rolled out Thursday, a group of officers tried to reach 189 students who had not been reached by teachers since schools closed March 15. They reached 62 students, said Mike Barton, who is chief college, career, equity and school choice officer. He added that the checks were not punitive in any way.

“That’s a good thing, but we wish it was 189,” Mike Barton said.

As far as a cause of why those students could not be contacted sooner, Barton said one reason was that their contact information had not been updated in the Infinite Campus system. Attendance officers worked to update that information during the visit, he said.

Trustee Deanna Wright also suggested that officers provide Chromebooks to students as they’re reached. The district has provided a Chromebook to all middle and high school students who have indicated a need and is now opening distribution to elementary students, according to the presentation to the board.

The district also will identify hot spots where students have not been in touch with their teachers to open more Chromebook distribution sites.

Seniors will return their digital devices before the end of the school year, but all other grades will be allowed to keep them through the summer. If traditional summer school can’t be held, the district will rely on Chromebooks for summer programming and other learning opportunities.

Beginning next week, principals will develop site-specific plans for returning students’ belongings and closing schools. They’re asked to communicate the plan to parents and staff by May 1.

Teachers will first report back to their classrooms to collect their personal items and prepare students’ belongings for distribution, but an alternate plan is available if staff do not feel comfortable doing so. Using drive-thru stations and appointments at schools similar to Chromebook deployment, students will be allowed to pick up personal items and return school property.

One detail of the end-of-the-year plan announced earlier in the day states that students’ third-quarter grades will become their fourth-quarter grades and remain open for adjustments for the rest of the year. For elementary students, semester 2 gradebooks also have been reopened.

The board also heard a presentation on the district’s tentative budget, but it did not include projections for the potential impacts of COVID-19, according to Chief Financial Officer Jason Goudie. Those could include state funding reductions and the effects of a possible recession. Written public comment implored trustees to consider a pay raise for substitutes as part of the budget — a topic of heated conversation before school closures.

A final item on the agenda, for informational purposes only, was a listing of the 221 teachers who will not return to the district after the end of the year, with the majority of the reasons given citing retirement.

The district on Thursday also announced the appointment of Brenda Larsen-Mitchell as deputy superintendent of schools following the departure of Diane Gullett for a new job as a superintendent in Florida.

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.