(CNN) – Most California schools may not reopen for face-to-face training this month; however, a superintendent of the Los Angeles area has developed a plan to accommodate some academics in class. And that doesn’t involve his teachers.
On August 19, when the Glendale Unified School District begins the school year, 20 of the district’s elementary schools will open empty study rooms for distance learning.
But of the 24 classic academics consistent with the class, there will be no more than 12. School officials call the organization a “technology module,” which will be overseen through a single substitute instructor or district staff member.
Staff will not teach students; Instead, they will be provided with computer support, monitor students’ use of the mask, social distance, and keep students focused on their work.
Superintendent Vivian Ekchian said she came up with the concept after noting that many young staff did not have adequate child care when schools were forced to transfer to distance learning in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We learned early and during the pandemic that our parents, who are must-have painters, parents who couldn’t paint at home or parents who had multiple children, urgently needed childcare,” Ekchian told CNN.
“And the truth is that when we became informed from a distance, there was no position to leave their children. So, at the elementary level, it’s a childcare opportunity for our parents who can’t stay home with their children. and they want a safe position where their academics can continue to be informed while they are not painting or looking for work.”
Glendale is located in Los Angeles County, where the Department of Public Health said earlier this month that it would not make any waiver requests that allow the reopening of elementary schools, which raises Covid-19’s highest local case rates.
“We know that for many families, this is a disappointing announcement, yet it’s based on the existing science and knowledge that advises our decision-making in general,” the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in an August 4. “We will need to ensure the physical condition and protection of our children, teachers and school staff and all their families.
The Los Angeles United School District and Glendale Unified School District will have to comply with Los Angeles County rules.
However, because there is no formal learning in progress in classrooms, the Glendale Unified School District only provides child care, which is countywide legal.
Ekchian, who has lived in Glendale for 20 years, believes it is his duty to give the net what they want to the fullest in this public fitness crisis.
“I can’t be in a hospital for a patient,” he told CNN, “but I can be on a school site for a student. And that’s my definition of being an essential employee in that capacity.”
More than one part (52%) Glendale Unified School District students get loose meals, he said.
“So we have Covid’s trauma added to what already existed in many of our homes,” Ekchian said. “And it is our duty as public servants to help.”
In addition, many academics come from households where parents speak one of the other 50 languages. Ekchian, who was appointed superintendent in May 2019, has become the first American woman and the first Armenian to run the district, which has the largest population of Armenians in the country.
“Not all students have parents who speak English at home,” Ekchian said, and “they may not have parents willing to do so with their homework or homework. We don’t need the learning hole to expand over time.”
When Glendale students return this week, the schools, and the study rooms themselves, will look different from what they were before.
According to Ekchian, the offices will be separated by at least 6 feet. Drinking water sources have been remodeled into hand washing stations. Children will have recreation and recreation. But the child will have their own toys and gadgets and stay away.
The pods will not intertwine and the brothers will be in the same pod. Breakfast and lunch will be taken to the door and distributed through the supervisor.
Students will check the temperature in the morning and answer questions about their fitness before entering the school. What if a child has Covid-19?
“If we were to believe that the interest of academics and adults is to close for a while … then that’s what we would do, but it wouldn’t take place in isolation,” he said.
The plan includes contact search, as well as assistance with medical exams and appointments. Parents are invited to restrict their exposure to participate.
“But with this comes a sure point of expectation that the rules will be followed so that everyone is safe,” Ekchian said.
Many students don’t have computers or Wi-Fi, so the district has distributed a total of 18,000 devices, Ekchian said.
Each child will have one at home and one in to restrict cross-contamination. Some of the investment came from the CARES Act.
On Tuesday, the coronavirus ignited more than 5.4 million people and killed more than 170,000 nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The start of the school year led educators and parents across the country to oppose the opening of face-to-face classes, and some schools that reopened have noticed new cases. More than 2,000 students, teachers and teachers have been quarantined in the few reopened districts in several states, according to a CNN account of the reported cases last week.
The White House also published 8 new recommendations for schools last week, adding that ensuring that academics and staff “understand Covid-19 symptoms” and requiring “all academics, ters and staff to assess their fitness in the morning before going to school.”
President Donald Trump said young people were “virtually immune” and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said last month that young people were Covid-19 “blockers.” But recent studies show the opposite.
Over the past 4 weeks, there has been a 90% increase in the number of Covid-19 cases among youth in the United States, according to recent research from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
Still, Ekchian is hopeful for the upcoming school year, especially after the good luck of the district’s summer pilot program. No cases of Covid-19 were reported during this period, he said.
In the new rules released last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that face coverings should be used safely in children over 2 years of age, with rare exceptions. Ekchian stated that after the pilot program, he did not care that the students were not dressed in masks.
“We had no challenge,” he said of wearing masks. “Our academics understood from the youngest to the first grades of elementary school, those are the rules of commitment. That’s the new normal.”
The director said she had already been contacted across the country about the program.
“I assume full duty, which means that if he succeeds, we will all have succeeded,” he said. “If it requires a change, it’s all my fault.”