Santa Fe Public School Superintendent Veronica Garcia says local public education will continue in the form of a distance learning program scheduled to start up when spring break ends.
On Tuesday, the district announced that it will close all district buildings and ask all employees to work from home.
The district sent students home with Chromebook laptop computers and iPads last week in preparation, and now Garcia says getting teachers and schools organized for the endeavor that begins March 23 is next.
SFPS’ virtual curriculum could include everything from online resources already in use, such as a program called Google Classroom where kids can access their homework assignments online, to live streaming or video chat classes. The district plans to announce the details before end of business on March 23.
Those details and others will require collaboration with the National Education Association Santa Fe chapter, a teachers union that represents Santa Fe educators, to assess how the collective bargaining agreement applies to the unprecedented scenario, including areas such as expected hours during a week and sick leave.
“This is going to completely change our working conditions,” says Grace Mayer, president of NEA-Santa Fe. “We have to provide a completely new way of educating students. The delivery and instruction is going to look very different from what our teachers were trained to do.”
Mayer estimates that for about 25% of the teachers, the online curriculum will be a steep learning curve. However, she also notes that the district’s push to incorporate digital learning into the classroom in recent years and Santa Fe’s vote in favor of recent tech bonds put the district in a good position to adopt and innovate distance learning strategies.
The district and the union are working out how to provide professional development for teachers in the coming days and weeks to prepare them for teaching their classes remotely. They have also opened the enrollment period for the union’s “sick leave bank” that allows employees to donate or request extra sick leave hours from one another. Teachers can enroll in the bank until the end of the month.
Superintendent Veronica Garcia tells SFR the curriculum the district adopts will likely include non-traditional assignments for kids such as daily journaling or art projects to help kids process the emotional impact of social distancing and fear about the virus.
The district will continue communicating with parents via email, text and robocall and will also post news on social media, she says.
Comcast has announced they will be providing free internet access in coming weeks, and Garcia says the district will work with the company to ensure that all students have access. The district is also looking to setting up trucks with hotspots in areas where connection is unreliable.
The district is working on how to provide extra services to kids with special needs as well, and is developing additional communication strategies for kids who may be at risk due to mental health or unstable home situations by connecting them to councilors and other support services.
Many supplemental and support services at the schools are pushing themselves into high gear to make sure that kids who are already at a learning disadvantage don’t fall further behind.
One of these is Reading Quest, an organization that helps kids catch up in reading. Nearly 300 students are enrolled in their tutoring programs, which are set to grow during the closures.
Executive Director Rayna Dineen tells SFR the organization began prepping more than a week ago and sent kids home last week with extra reading materials and resources. Full time Reading Quest employees as well as volunteers will continue tutoring via phone during the closures and will do a training with teachers at Nina Otero Community School to help them provide remote reading courses online.
For children whose parents must continue working or don’t speak English, the idea of learning at home may be particularly daunting. Dineen says the goal is to provide students with enough resources and support that they can keep up no matter what their situation is at home.
“We are really determined to help those kids not fall behind,” Dineen tells SFR. “We know where each kid is at. We are making sure to keep checking in with them and we are sending [them] home with things they can do alone so they don’t have to rely on their parents.”
Dineen asks people to contact the organization for a list of free online learning resources.
Another organization, Communities in Schools, launched a campaign over the weekend to raise $75,000 for their emergency fund to help families cover basic expenses such as rent and utilities in the coming weeks.
“We are concerned about the destabilization that we are all experiencing and how that will impact our most vulnerable families,” she tells SFR. “We are definitely expecting a spike in emergency fund requests.”
She says she’s already received the first emergency fund request from a single father looking for childcare in the weeks after spring break.
SFR spoke to parents on Monday at a drive-up free lunch station at Ramirez Thomas Elementary School as food service workers passed bagged lunches through open car windows, and many had similar concerns.
One parent, Tommy Mascareñas, tells SFR he and his children’s mother are trading off days to stay home with the kids, and that he will have to take days off from his job at a nearby senior living center. He says the center is currently on lockdown and is juggling the schedules of four employees who are all taking time off to stay home with their kids.
“What I’m mostly worried about is my financial situation,” Mascareñas tells SFR.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has provided a hotline for parents who need help with c hildcare, food insecurity, supplies and a loss of income at 1-833-551-0518.
Claire E Dudley-Chavez, the director of policy, research and quality initiatives at the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department, tells SFR the state has asked childcare centers to remain open.
A list of childcare resources will be updated daily at www.newmexicokids.org/ and www.newmexico.gov/early-childhood/.
