Come next year, snow days at Clark-Pleasant schools won’t mean pesky make-up days for students or shuffling the curriculum for teachers. They will be able to assign and complete assignments from the comfort of their homes.
Clark-Pleasant Community Schools will join Center Grove, Edinburgh, Franklin and Indian Creek schools as an eLearning district during the 2020-21 school year.
The school board unanimously approved the measure Tuesday.
Students will be able to sign in to Google Classrooms online, which teachers will use to post assignments. Although 85 to 90 percent of Clark-Pleasant families have internet access at home, the district will give students a three-school-day window to complete assignments starting on the eLearning day, said Patrick Spray, superintendent.
Students in fifth through 12th grades have one-to-one connectivity, meaning they have a Chromebook provided by the school that they can use for eLearning purposes, he said.
“I think it’s something our community of parents have been asking us to evaluate,” Spray said. “We haven’t been a one-to-one district until the past couple of years. We’ve continued to put more and more devices in students’ hands and are going with a connected learning option, with greater flexibility to deliver content to students.”
Having the eLearning day on the actual day of a cancellation rather than a make-up day works better in terms of managing the flow of curriculum. Currently, everything gets pushed back, he said.
To prepare for an eLearning environment, Clark-Pleasant schools will hold professional development sessions next fall, during which school officials will train teachers to conduct successful eLearning days.
On an eLearning day, teachers should have their assignments up by 9 a.m. and be available until 3:30 p.m. to answer questions from students, which can be submitted online, said Kimberly Fifer, associate superintendent.
Clark-Pleasant schools will also survey parents to see how many households report connectivity issues. The survey will help school officials adjust the school’s eLearning strategy if needed, Spray said.
“I’ve earned — deserved or not deserved — a reputation on not delaying or canceling school,” Spray said. “By doing eLearning, I feel like we’re still preserving instructional time, which is really important. We want to make sure we can use it during inclement weather, but that it’s still engaging. Nothing is worse than talking to a family that says it’s a waste of time. They want to make it worthwhile for students, not just 12 hours of busy work.”
