Thursday, April 16, 2020 | 11:30 p.m.
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Fifty-five thousand Clark County School District students have received Chromebooks from the district to help them learn from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced at Thursday’s Clark County School Board meeting.
Distributing Chromebooks has been a priority for the district since Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered all Nevada schools to close March 15 due to the pandemic. The devices have so far been allocated to middle and high school students who need them, but elementary school students are expected to get some starting this week, district officials said. CCSD has a total of 200,000 Chromebooks on hand to serve its approximately 320,000 students during the school closures.
Despite progress in Chromebook distribution, it remains unclear how much learning has taken place districtwide since schools shut down. None of the schoolwork assigned during the closures is technically mandatory, but schools are still expected to educate students “to the best of their ability.”
Until this week, teachers were only asked to report whether they had contacted students and whether students had participated in any online learning, said Brenda Larsen-Mitchell, chief curriculum instruction and assessment officer for CCSD. Per a directive from the Nevada Department of Education, teachers must now report weekly whether they made “two-way communication” directly with each of their students or their parents.
“There’s been additional clarification provided regarding the definition of contacting students and how contacts should be counted, including two-way communication,” Larsen-Mitchell said.
Teachers must report the date on which they made contact and provide details about students’ learning and progress that week, Larsen-Mitchell said. Students are considered “present” for the entire week if the teacher reached them at least once, the new policy says.
Data on distance learning in the district for the weeks of March 23 and 30 — the third and fourth weeks of CCSD’s official distance learning plan — is limited. While officials report that 257,486 students were contacted by educators the week of March 23 and 230,361 students were contacted the week of March 30, it is unknown whether those students were successfully reached, Larsen-Mitchell said.
In addition, while 277,486 students “engaged in distance education” the week of March 23 and 258,361 did so the week of March 30, the amount or quality of schoolwork completed was not tracked districtwide, Larsen-Mitchell said.
“We would not be able to gauge essentially how much the student had engaged,” she said.
The district also lacks data on the participation rates of specific populations, such as English language learners or students receiving Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), when it comes to distance learning, Larsen-Mitchell said.
With schools expected to stay closed until at least April 30, officials are looking at options for enhanced summer programming to address educational gaps expected to arise or deepen during the pandemic, Superintendent Jesus Jara said.
“When our children and staff come back in the fall, what does that look like?” Jara said.
One added challenge the school district could soon face is projected budget cuts due to the pandemic. Sisolak has asked state agencies to propose budget cuts of 4% in fiscal year 2020 and 6-14% in fiscal year 2021, said Brad Keating, CCSD’s director of government relations.
“We are waiting right now for the governor to release what his proposed cuts are from what the departments have given him,” Keating said.
A 4% cut to the state’s Distributive Schools Account for fiscal year 2020 would amount to a $46.67 million reduction in funding, Keating said.
With budget cuts on the horizon and an anticipated need to bring students up to speed once in-person classes can safely resume, additional education money through the federal CARES Act could be crucial for the district, Jara said.
“Looking at all these dollars we’re seeing from the federal government, we’ll have to be really strategic in where we allocate it,” he said.
In addition to hearing updates on the district’s distance-learning program and emerging challenges, the school board voted down a proposal Thursday that would have given Jara additional authorities through April 30.
The measure would have allowed Jara to submit proposals for school construction, authorize settlement payments, move forward with essential maintenance projects, purchase essential district items and modify negotiated agreements with personnel without approval from the school board “in case of an emergency” that prevented the board from meeting.
School board President Lola Brooks said the temporary authorities were intended to provide the district and the school board with an emergency plan during the pandemic if the body were unable to reach a quorum due to board members falling ill or other circumstances.
“This resolution, it only comes to fruition and is useful if those board meetings are not possible,” Brooks said.
But other board members said they found the measure unnecessary and that it would cause undue stress for teachers and staff, some of whom submitted comments to the board opposing the proposal.
“As board members, if we give away our authority of informed oversight, we’re giving away the people’s authority, because we were elected,” said school board member Linda Cavazos. “We have only one employee and that is the superintendent, and I do want to be on that team.”
In an unusual vote, board members voted 5-2 not to adopt the temporary measure. There were no opposed votes, but board members Deanna Wright and Irene Cepeda abstained.
