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California school districts are likely to be closed the rest of this academic year, Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to mislead you,” he said in a press conference. “I would plan and assume that it’s unlikely that many of these schools — few, if any — will open before the summer break.”
An education policy advocate told the Palo Alto Unified school board on Tuesday night that in conversations with Newsom’s office, staff said the governor is not formally calling for schools to remain closed for the rest of the academic year, but they cautioned to prepare for the state to head in that direction.
“He has felt this way privately for a while and other states clearly are being really aggressive about closing,” Capitol Advisors Group President Kevin Gordon said staff communicated about Newsom. “He could see us going on that direction.”
Nearly all California school districts, 98.8%, are closed in response to the coronavirus and are scrambling to adjust to a new educational normal in real time. The state released more detailed guidance for K-12 schools on Tuesday, with a focus on distance learning, meal delivery, accommodations for students with disabilities and child care and supervision. Newsom also called for a suspension of all state standardized testing while other critical, privately administered exams — the SAT and ACT — have been postponed. Advanced Placement tests remain scheduled for May 4–8 and 11–15 for schools that will be open, which remains a question mark. However, College Board, which administers AP exams, is considering allowing students to take the tests at home.
As of now, Palo Alto Unified schools are set to reopen after spring break on April 13.
“We heard pretty loud and clear tonight … it’s probably less likely than we would have hoped that we would be done by spring break,” Superintendent Don Austin said.
The school board — sitting at least 6 feet apart at the dais with two board members participating by phone, limited staff and a Purell hand sanitizer dispenser sitting at the speaker’s podium — took new action on Tuesday to bolster the district’s response to the coronavirus.
The board unanimously approved an emergency resolution that gives the superintendent the authority to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic without board approval as long as he immediately notifies each board member of any action he takes, including the reopening or closing of schools.
Schools boards throughout Santa Clara County are considering similar resolutions at the recommendation of the county Office of Education, board members said.
President Todd Collins described the resolution as a “belt and suspenders move” that’s “consistent with what other districts in our area (and) state are doing and consistent with the objective of serving students during a time of great emergency. Palo Alto Unified board policy already gives the superintendent the authority to “act on behalf of the district in a manner that is consistent with law and board policies.”
“We’re enforcing explicitly something that’s captured in a couple lines of board policy and tying in some of these notification requirements that are really helpful,” Collins said.
Austin said the resolution covers “rare,” time-sensitive actions in the case of emergency.
“This is not a blank check,” he said.
Trustee Ken Dauber stressed that the required notification to each board member should “actually be a notification and not a floating of a possible direction” or “taking the temperature of board members.”
“That would be a slippery slope we don’t want to go down,” he said.
The board also decided to withdraw a parcel tax measure planned for a May mail-in election, citing concerns about the challenges a campaign that relies on knocking on doors and community outreach would face at this time. They will decide when to reschedule the parcel tax at a future date, with options for an August mail-in ballot, the November general election and a primary ballot in spring 2021.
Both the emergency resolution and withdrawal of the parcel tax were added to the board’s agenda late on Tuesday under a government code provision that requires a majority of the board to determine that an emergency situation exists, which they did.
Board members discussed with Austin the district’s evolving approach to remote learning as students and parents received their first week of online resources and assignments to be provided while school is closed. The district is setting “minimum expectations for consistency” but allowing teachers to individualize instruction, Austin said. Work is intended to be optional at this time and is not being graded.
“When we miss extended periods of time … if you’re a lockstep district your mentality is, this is pretty easy. It’s canned and you just go. We’re not that district,” he said. “Our district believes in innovation, some autonomy, some creativity, some space to do things differently.”
In an email after the meeting, Austin said the district is in the first of potentially three phases for distance learning, focusing now on flexible learning options with low time expectations. The second phase starts next week with “more interaction and an increase in hours” and runs through spring break. The third phase will start if schools remain closed after spring break and will entail planning for a “robust program designed to replace classroom instruction,” Austin said.
Variation in the flexible learning assignments at this stage, particularly at the high school level, is sparking some concern among parents and students.
“There does not seem to be any uniformity,” Jade Chao, president of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, told the school board on Tuesday evening. “We are also seeing unequal methods used by teachers” in homework, materials and communication with students.
Gunn High School student board representative Claire Cheng said students have a lot of questions about the variation from teacher to teacher.
“Is there standardization within our district of what’s the minimum, what’s the maximum, any kind of protocol at all for that?” she asked.
Board member Melissa Baten Caswell said that being flexible rather than standardized will benefit the district during an uncertain time.
“I know that parents are panicked. It’s scary. Many families don’t know how to handle uncertainty with academics,” she said. “We also have to appreciate the fact that we’re flexible over time. When you get places where everyone is in lockstep, there’s no flexibility over time. We can learn new information, we can make … better decisions or more robust decisions.”
Palo Alto Unified and districts across the state are also grappling with what an extended closure means for supporting special-education students. If the district shifts to a full remote learning model rather than the current “flexible learning options,” it must meet its legal obligations to serve all students, Collins said.
“I struggle and I know our staff struggles to find ways … to actually figure out how to meet the requirements of the law while providing large-scale general education classes online,” he said. “It’s important to understand that we as public school district have a body of obligations to provide access and education all the time whenever we are open. We can’t selectively serve students.”
The district has said its flexible learning options include activities for special-education students and that education specialists at the secondary level will provide support to students on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) through remote office hours on Schoology, the district’s online learning management system. Any Individualized Education Plan meetings scheduled for during the school closures have been canceled and will be rescheduled “upon the reopening of schools.”
The district is also working to continue to support students’ mental health needs while school is out. School counselors, psychologists and Wellness Center coordinators will be available via email and can schedule time to talk with students using phone or video. Mental health staff will also be checking in with students and families who have been receiving ongoing support from their schools.Â
During the school closures, teachers are working remotely but are expected to be teaching and working, including planning future instruction, meeting with their departments and instructional leaders via remote conferencing service Zoom and being available for remote office hours for students, Austin said. Teachers are receiving full pay during this period.
Some classified staff are working from home at a regular rate while others have jobs that can’t be done remotely, such as bus drivers, but will still be receiving full pay during the shutdown, Austin said.
Substitute teachers in long-term positions will be paid, but substitutes in pools with multiple school districts will not be, Austin confirmed.
• If you’re a Palo Alto parent or student affected by the school closures, we want to hear from you for an upcoming story. Send an email to education reporter Elena Kadvany at ekadvany@paweekly.com.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and Almanac here.
Why can’t the district impose some consistency and uniformity in its distance offerings? Why not? The teacher’s union’s influence? How does that serve students? Many teachers are looking out for their students right now, but as usual, the district does not.
As usual, our board members speak gobbledy gook and defend mediocre to poor district practices.
I’m glad to hear that the district is taking care of staff and everyone will still receive a paycheck during the closure. With so much uncertainty, that is one less thing for them to worry about.
Has the district looked into offering UC Scout a-g WASC and UC accredited courses for the high schoolers?
Superintendent Don Austin needs to go. He should resign for poorly managing this crisis. As usual parents were ignorant even though we were begging him 3 to 4 weeks ago to plan for this. Guess who is suffering because of poor planning and shifting his responsibilities? The kids who need help the most.
Parents were ignored by the Superintendent Don Austin. And now the kids who need the most support are suffering the most because of his poor planning and ensuing chaos. Teachers are scrambling too. He had weeks of planning to get paper packets ready and parents up to speed but chose not to communicate. Resign Don.
The UC-system offers fully accredited online courses directly from them, and they just made them FREE for all students due to the outbreak. It’s called UC Scout Online.
There is a catch though. Your local public school needs to approve and allow you to do it. So to any high school kid who really wants to finish a class for your personal growth aspirations (in a sensibly designed online forum), feel free to look up UC Scout and ask PAUSD for approval.
Don’t expect PAUSD to be helpful, though. They will likely say no, despite the state and UC’s best efforts to help. They have said no to others. Saying yes slightly erodes the interests of their teachers’ guild.
It would be nice if teachers weren’t left to read about these updates from PAOnline…might explain the lack of uniformity.
@Sally – actually you don’t have to have the district’s approval to do UC Scout; you can do your own course; you just have to pay ($800). But it’s better if the district would facilitate it, of course. It seems that since UC Scout is free when you do go through your district, that PAUSD should facilitate offering UC Scout in this emergency instance, especially for equity reasons. UC Scout offers a-g courses and is WASC/UC accredited and online. I’m sure there must be other accredited offerings online as well.
What about it PAUSD? For our high schoolers?
hwVEq
That’s good news, our leader can decide instead of going around in circles with them for weeks. Plus, they are avoiding any blame.
My son’s teachers are just posting things to keep their minds busy, they are not posting actual assignments to finish out the year. Wouldn’t this be fairly easy? Maybe they are working on it this week? The World Language program adopted last year is already a disaster (no textbooks, no homework, no way to study for tests) so my son isn’t missing anything there.
@Independent — You are correct one can enroll without approval, but NO ONE SHOULD ENROLL IN ONLINE CLASSES WITHOUT PAUSD APPROVAL.
Without PAUSD simply saying “yes” (it’s not hard to say “yes” guys!), not only would UC Scout Online be $800 per semester versus FREE, but you couldn’t be sure PAUSD would count them toward graduation.
The possibility that they would say “no” seems crazy, but is well grounded in how the district has behaved previously to protect its teachers’ guild.
PAUSD has refused to allow these credits to count toward graduation (also baffling, since we aligned our graduation requirements to UC/CSU requirements, and these actually come FROM the UC/CSU system itself).
Come on PAUSD. This is easy. I’m not saying UC Scout Online (or anything else) should be the ONLY solution. Given the state of affairs, we need to allow kids multiple avenues to pursue their goals during these boring weeks and weeks stuck at home.
@Well: Teachers at Paly have been directed by the district to only post optional work/enrichment that takes no more than an hour for the week to complete. We’ve been told to ramp it up to 3 hours next week–still all optional with no impact on the grades.
Teachers were informed of the closure at lunch time on Friday. There was no time during regular hours to prep for this week. The district sent home enough grade-level specific resources on Monday to get all students through at least this week. Teachers were not expected to provide anything for this week, and were discouraged from doing so, in order to maintain uniformity. On Friday we will regroup and plan for next week.
Everyone is doing the best they can in this new and unchartered territory, from the top down. Let’s exercise a little patience and stop playing a blame game while people figure out what works best.
@Educator: Thanks for letting us know, that is what I was thinking, but no one told us. We were told that there was online “flexible learning”, no real school work. Although, two weeks of it is technically Spring Break.
What about grades? My son was hoping to improve some grades. Are they frozen?
@Meanwhile: Thanks for the information.
I really can’t believe that the machinery for this was not in place long ago. We have the real possibilities of earthquakes that could severely damage school buildings, roads to and from schools, fires, etc. This is Silicon Valley. This is a wealthy school district in a wealthy community.
Why haven’t better preparations for disaster been put in place as soon as technology could do these things?
What has been going on in the past few weeks? Has there been nothing even possibly discussed that this may occur?
What goes on? Why we have spent the last X number of years hiring and firing superintendents and really not done anything at all about making ways for doing remote schooling. We have students who could have been benefiting from remote schooling while hospitalized or even the time comes to mind when the Volcano in Iceland kept a choir stranded in Europe because of a volcano eruption. Did these things never occur to anyone.
Anyway, too late for the what might have beens and ifs, but we are paying for the lack of preparedness. Of course hindsight is not a good way to look at this, but it is hard not to do so.
At least, perhaps, when the big one happens, PAUSD may have a little more experience and perhaps, just perhaps a better plan.
There will be nothing done ahead.
This is a disaster for juniors and seniors.
You have to have preapproval for classes. They will not count fora-g credit. You can have up to 4o units. It counts for his only . Even if a class has a-g honors credit they will not post in gpa. They will for AP classes.
These classes are not easy. Usc scout has endless homework and proctored tests and teacher contact time constraints. BYU has usc approved courses and us vet basic but you have to find and pay proctors. Paly will let you test but not now probably.
Many colleges do not really like the cheesy online classes.
Some colleges like u of Nebraska have hs college classes all big 10 schools take and these are cheap and decent and private colleges like these better than cheesy AP online classes because the teachers are credentialed. Keep the syllabus and text name and some work samples
@Well: Paly teachers have been told to turn in 3rd quarter grades (so everything prior to last Friday) by 3/24. As of now, nothing is being assigned after last Friday until after Spring Break–if we return. We haven’t been told what do for semester grades yet or what to do if we don’t return.
It has been a LOT for the administrators, teacher and students to take in, these past few days and I feel for all of them. That being said, I am hoping that PAUSD is taking this week and the next to cleanly figure out the distance-learning option. Agree with Resident comment above that it is hard to believe we do not have the machinery in place (in Silicon Valley!)… but that aside, I hope the solutions are coming soon.
This cannot be so hard …I see a solution in three-parts:
1/ USE ZOOM. Easy to use and provides all functionality (chat, shared screens for teacher to teach, document sharing, easy video/audio options etc). Zoom has already offered free accounts to students and waiving the 40-mt limit on scheduled sessions, so the length of the classes can stay the same. I use Zoom everyday for my work, 100% remote and once you build the right culture and discipline of working with it, it is fantastic. (I am merely a consumer of this product, have no allegiance or connection to this company or product)
2/ STANDARDIZE THE PERIODS/SCHEDULES and TEACH THE SAME CONTENT TO ALL STUDENTS OF THE GRADE. Since this is distance-learning, rotate teachers or pick the best teacher to teach the class to all students at the same time. That way, all students get the best of all content. Schedules are easy. (This is even better than current situation where some students get better teachers than others :))
3/ USE THE REMAINING TEACHERS TO FILL THE GAPS w/ 1:1 or 1:many customized teaching for students with needs, flex/tutorial requirements, extra support.
As things get better and travel bans/lockdowns are lifted gradually, we could even have teachers come in to classes and welcome some students (who have trouble learning at home) to physically attend school – by limiting the class size drastically.
In the grand scheme of the types of complex issues that are being solved in the world, figuring out high-quality distance learning for PAUSD should not be an issue – happy to support/help in any way to re-envision this. Really hoping this is worked out soon, hope someone in PAUSD is reading all this and working out a good solution soon!
Be safe and well, everyone!
One other point.
Where do we stand on a citywide wifi system?
If we had a citywide wifi, then any student who doesn’t have internet at home/computer, could be lent a school laptop.
We really are behind the times. I am reading about how other places are so far ahead of us with their closed schools. It really is apparent just how last century we are here in Silicon Valley. Incredible really!
@VH. The district has Zoom. My daughter’s teacher had 1:1’s with all the kids and has scheduled a class meeting via Zoom, but nothing assigned yet. Because the district was so unprepared, it will take a couple of weeks for them to get caught up and there will be some trial and error as everyone figures out the best way to teach and learn using it.
Teaches should not use zoom until privacy and safety is secured
How about we consider everyone including teachers and admin as human beings for once. They are parents too, they may have loved ones left without a job or loved ones that have to continue to report to work whether remotely or physically, like doctors, nurses, store clerks etc. All those people risking their health for the well being of the rest. This is an ever changing catastrophe that NO ONE was prepared for, otherwise there would be zero casualties everywhere else.
You must trust the plan rather than bash every attempt. Without an attempt there is no success.
Hi, I know with all these school closures, I was worried about where to take my kids. But I found a company called WeeCare that found me childcare immediately!
I just hope that this gets resolved soon.
Posted by Anonymous, a resident of another community
>> Teaches should not use zoom until privacy and safety is secured
Please be more specific. Since videoconferencing is generally “not necessarily private”, then, teachers should not say things via videoconferencing that must be private. You never know what might be being (re)broadcast on the other end, or, who might be in the room behind the camera, or, -whatever-. Authentication can also be a problem — do you really know who is on every connection?
On the other hand, anything in a common textbook is by definition “not private”. Any common school subject is “not private”. No reason why “Bellum Gallicum” can’t be taught in Latin class. Or, to put it another way, if teachers and students are bringing a lot of personal stuff into Latin class, then, that will need to change in the age of Zoom.
Anything not appropriate for an open classroom situation needs to be saved for “later in private”. Not every subject is appropriate for this kind of instruction– e.g. sex education, health education in general, anything related to special ed, IEP reviews, etc. etc., will have to stay private, as they are now. Right now, that means being deferred. But, there is plenty of education to be done that doesn’t need to be personal.
Very disappointed on PAUSD through this crisis. Can teacher just record video class and send to parents at least everyday? Why other school districts already have daily online classes?
Woodside high school closed on Friday and started online classes 3 Days later on a Monday. Congrats to them. It’s tough on everyone but happy to see the effort.
Anon
What?
Zoom violates privacy laws for children. Using it puts them at risk because the leadership can not watch teachers in real time . Certainly the won’t on zoom.
The teacher may be fine but her husband. Visitor uncle aunt might not be and they would have access. Same goes for kids . Their parents should not have access to other children while they are in a classroom but they will with zoom.
The notion that all teachers and all parents are nice us naive. The notion that zoom is secure for children is stupidity.
No thanks to mr what’s his face contacting my kid for office hours while they are doing a one on one in her room. Because the admin. Staff will not schedule classes during class time I have to wait again and know when each class is going. With a few kids, this is stupid to schedule and then impossible to keep track of. One screen shot shared or one discussion or bad post puts another lawsuit up.
Record lectures. Be available during the class and take notes on work sent through schoology .
The Palo Alto School Board spends their time discussing name changes for Palo Alto schools instead of working on real problems plaguing our school district. What a disgrace.
UC Scout:
Is it really free? Under their “Plans & Pricing” page, there is more clarity as to who provides what. While it may be free to the student, it doesn’t mean it’s free to the district, especially if they are providing the teacher and other support resources. Time is money after all. At scale, the cost could drop to the district, but it’s still not free.
Zoom/teleconferencing:
How do you prevent students/parents from recording group interactions? Any parent or student who records the meeting could be violating other students’ privacy, couldn’t they?
What happens if a parent engages a teacher inappropriately in front of other students? A recording might be appropriate then, but how disruptive would that interaction be to students’ learning? What would be appropriate consequences?
While an administrator could choose to monitor teleconferencing meetings by being notified and invited, would they realistically be able to monitor every single interaction? There isn’t an expectation that they are able to do that in traditional, in-person school environments.
If a parent wants to visit an on site class, administration has been able to come as well to provide teacher or student safety (e.g. making sure parents are following guidelines about not being disruptive or violating security rules). With teleconferencing, any or every parent could be present for every class. What are the risks there?
How long before CPS is called by teachers who witness concerns? Parents better be on good behavior inviting mandatory reporters into their homes.
How are smaller group interactions documented? How could a student be protected from abuse by a staff member?
Since this is for minors–not adults working from home–there are *many* issues that need to be considered surrounding products like Zoom during this rush to adopt *something* to facilitate more comprehensive distance learning. Some clear expectations and consequences should be set for students and their guardians/parents in an attempt to protect families and district staff alike.
Parents,
I understand your frustration over the current events that impact your children. As a member of the UC Scout team I can assure you we are doing all we can to help. Schools and teachers are often surprised that UC Scout offers free online curriculum, but we do. We have 65 A-G courses including 26 AP courses. Each course consists of video lectures, assignments, quizzes, tests, and more. Different options include:
PLUS is the best option for teachers and schools dealing with shutdowns. We give any of our 65 courses to the school AND/OR teacher to administer. We do not teach the class, the normal school’s teacher teaches the course. Since we have pre-existing high-end video lectures for every unit, this makes the teachers job manageable. That teacher can determine which elements of our packaged course to include for his/her students. The students and teacher connect via Canvas, our online learning management system. This program is built for ease of use. However, we are running webinars for teachers who still aren’t comfortable or familiar with our system.
ON DEMAND – you can take one of the 65 courses directly through UC Scout. UC Scout provides the teacher and course credit. We can send this credit to the college of your choice. The cost is $399/per student/ per semester, which covers the costs associated with our teachers, resources, and technology. As mentioned by previous comments, the key exams: midterms and finals are proctored. This is used for academic integrity to make sure our students are indeed taking the tests. We are fully accredited and we take our academic integrity very seriously.
BASIC for teachers – Teachers can use Basic in the same way they can use PLUS except that the students don’t have access to the course via the UC Scout online learning management system. The teacher can print assignments, show videos in class, etc. But this option doesn’t seem like the best option for schools or teachers given the current circumstances. It is, however, also free to public schools and teachers.
BASIC for students – California public school students can have free access to our educational videos for all 65 courses for self-study. No credit is provided, but it’s useful for studying various A-G courses or preparing for AP exams.
I welcome anybody interested to google our website and/or reach out to us with questions. Thank you!
p.s. In case it wasn’t clear, yes, PLUS from UC Scout is 100% free for California public school and teachers.
I am so angry at PAUSD forcing all students to have pass/fail grades. As a junior who had straight As the first quarter, I feel like all of my hard work has gone to waste and my grades will seem inferior to other applicants do my second semester grades not contributing to my GPA. I wish that Pass/Fail grading would be optional and that students could choose to receive grades. Also, many of my peers are becoming unmotivated because of the pass/fail system, and many are taking it as an opportunity to not learn and watch TV all day.
Paly student
Screenshot all your grades
Keep a few good samples of your work
Offer it to colleges inotes or mention this in your essay.
Then hi watch sone tv and rest.
Paly Student – read the reply I posted to you on the comment you made in the thread about the cost of sheltering. I don’t think I need to post it twice.