MUSKEGON, Mich. — Muskegon Public Schools will begin virtually the upcoming fall semester.
Superintendent of Muskegon Public Schools Matthew Cortez announced Tuesday that school will commence with a "distance learning mode." He said the district is currently not confident that students and staff can safely and healthily return to school buildings.
“This plan is not the same as the one last spring,” Cortez’s statement reads. “We have designed this plan to make grades, credit, attendance and participation mandatory.”
The district will be implementing two types of learning methods: synchronous and asynchronous.
Synchronous learning refers to live instruction using Chromebooks, which Cortez says will be done every morning of every school day. Asynchronous, which refers to learning by pre-recorded lessons on Chromebooks, will be done in the afternoons.
“We will also offer appointment based in-person tutoring using one-on-one or small groups of 6-8 students with their teacher,” the statement continues. “I’m excited that we were able to provide some opportunities for students to schedule face-to-face time with their teacher, while remaining safe and healthy.”
The district will also be providing transportation to students for tutoring; details on transportation options will be provided in the weeks to come.
Plans are also being developed to increase access to in-person learning for Early Childhood and Special Education students.
“In short our students will continue learning primarily from home with our distance learning plan,” the statement reads. “We will evaluate this plan on a monthly basis and when the opportunity to re-open direct instruction in the classroom is safe and manageable, we will move toward that end.”
More details will be released in days and weeks to come. The district hopes to have a plan for the Board to adopt in early August.
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