GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Tuesday Grand Rapids Public Schools kicked off what was an unprecedented start to its school year. Students in West Michigan's largest school district spent the first day of school at home. Like many districts, GRPS will keep school buildings closed due to COVID-19 and offer distance learning to students.
"There are so many things with this pandemic that you can't control, you got to kind of be fluid and move with what's going on. I think having plans is important, of course, but also knowing they have to be adaptable," says Dr. Leadriane Roby, GRPS superintendent.
Roby was officially hired in February, just weeks before the pandemic shut down practically everything, including schools. She's spent the past 6 months working to connect with students, families and staff, as much as possible. She says listening to parents and their concerns help the district to decide on remote learning for the first 9 weeks of the school year.
"We are doing and will continue to do some listening sessions as roll into a new instructional model using the distance learning format," she said. "We plan to do the listening sessions both at the building level and at the district level, so that we can stay very connected to our students and our families and finding out how things are working for them. Things that we may need to consider as we continue to move forward into the school year. I think it's important to do it at the building level because there may be some specific things that a building will need, that may be nuanced, and the entire district may not need. It will also let us get a broader view from the district level, if we are seeing some commonalities or some adjustments we need to make with respect to learning plan."
Roby says teachers will begin the year evaluating students' academic needs. She believes that is especially important considering the abrupt ending to the previous academic year.
"This fall, because we didn't finish our school year in person, we need to kind of measure where our students are. I think every district will be doing some sort of assessment of their students in the fall. Normally you do this anyway because we expect some learning loss over the summer," said Roby. "But, especially, since in the Spring, we weren't fully prepared for an online structure. So, we need to really see where students are and measure where they need to be for the upcoming school year. What teachers are going to be doing is some sort of standardized assessment by grade level or grade span and use that information to do some planning around what re-teaching needs to take place for students and how to continue to accelerate students with current grade level curriculum."
The priorities Roby listed for the academic year include: continuing rigorous relevant education and making sure students have access to the technology needed for academic success; access to healthy meals; providing social and emotional support for students and obtaining and sharing accurate information about how to best move forward in this pandemic.
"As this pandemic has kind of cycled and ebbed and flowed, we needed to have some long term plans around making sure we have the kind of social-emotional supports that will keep kids engaged. And, also have time for our staff to really think about how they're working within this new instructional model and making sure we have supports for them as far as professional development," she said. "And finally, you know, making sure that we have good information about keeping people healthy and making sure that we're giving out accurate information, not our opinions or our political views, but what does the science say. What are safety guidelines? We are making sure we're sharing those with our families and making sure they have those resources."
The superintendent can say for certain what school will look like after the first 9 weeks. But, she says they plan to be ready for what comes next.
"So, of course I can't predict the future and how things are going to look, but we'll make sure that we have some structures and systems in place. With respect to when we get back into in-person school, we are working on that plan right now. We have talked about a hybrid where we might do an A-B kind of schedule, where we'll take half the students part of the week and half of the students the other part of the week. That can look a couple of different ways," she said. "One size doesn't fit all. We are trying to create a system and structures that will support many needs. We have 15,000 students and then of course their parents and extended family. There's not one decision that will fit everyone's need. So, being aware and really cognizant of that, I think, is really important."
Roby says she will continue to stay plugged into the needs of her students and families while proceeding the best way possible.
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