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In Depth: Going back to school
LOS ANGELES - SEGMENT A: School next semester
Dr. Cuauhtemoc Avila, Superintendent of the Rialto Unified School District, Dr. Martinrex Kedziora, Superintendent of the Moreno Valley Unified School District, and Melissa Neri, President of the PTA at Palm Middle School in Moreno Valley Join Hal to discuss what will potentially happen when school is in session again next semester.
Dr. Avila says distance learning is going well, and could be continued indefinitely.
Dr. Kedzirora says all options are still on the table when they go back to school, but the priority is to keep students safe. Currently students are getting “grab and go” meals and the district may continue that. He also says that distance learning in his district is currently an “A minus” but he expects it to get better and better.
Neri and Kedziora say that the process is cooperation between administrators and parents.
SEGMENT B: Summer school and beyond
Neri says that the most important thing for her when kids go back to school is to make sure they maintain their constant handwashing. She also suggests downsizing class sizes to keep kids further apart.
Dr. Kedziora says that is possible that class sizes will be smaller because some children might not want to go back to class. They are looking at distance learning in the future or independent study to accommodate.
Dr. Avila says there is a team exploring any options for reducing the population of kids on campus including staggered classes and distance learning.
Neri says she will be checking the COVID-19 statistics to determine when she feels it will be safe to let her kids go back to school, but says in the meantime she feels distance learning is working very well.
SEGMENT C: Teachers weigh in
Joining Hal are Kathryn Valadez, a physical education teacher at Frisbie Middle School in Rialto and Steve Hill, also a PE teacher at Pollard High in the Corona Norco Unified school district.
Valadez says her method for teaching PE with distance learning is to send her students suggestions on how to stay active and that they check in with her every day. She says she misses her students, but she trusts the administrators to figure out the right time to get students back to school.
Hill says he is ready to go back to class any time. He thinks it is important to get kids back in class and interacting with their instructors and each other. Hill says he thinks he and his family might have been infected with COVID-19 months ago. He says he misses his students, and has made some YouTube exercise videos to help keep connected with them.
SEGMENT D: Wrap Up
We close with “Generation Gap” a barbershop quartet still harmonizing through technology with their tribute to Mothers on this Mother’s Day.