School Ways

Dr. Monica Goldson Rolls Out More Details of Her Plan For Starting School This Fall. Hear Remarks from the CEO.

By Raoul Dennis

Prince George’s Public Schools CEO Dr. Monica Goldson revealed more details of her plan for the August 31 return to school. She presented her plan to the Prince George’s County Council July 27. Hear Goldson’s remarks by clicking the audiobar above “Dr. Goldson Discusses PGCPS Reopen Details.”

Under Goldson, the school board has decided to maintain distance learning through January 2021.

“I shared with you how we arrived at offering distance learning to the first semester, which is August 31st through January 29th for our students,” Goldson said to the 11-member body. “Of course, this distance learning model is going to have to be totally different than what we offered in the spring,” Goldson says.

A summary of the plan is outlined here.

Here are more highlights from the plan:

Elementary School

Students will receive four lessons per week in reading/English language arts and mathematics, and one or two lessons per week in science and social studies. Classes for health, physical education, music, and art will rotate daily and students will receive one lesson per week for each of these classes. This schedule is a sample only; students will follow the schedule they receive from their school.

Middle and High School

Using an A/B-Day model, students will receive live “real-time” lessons daily in all scheduled classes. Some classes are scheduled to meet every day and some meet every other day. Teachers will use curriculum documents, resources and distance learning platforms to plan engaging lessons for students.

Teachers have the option of working in their classroom or from home, among a number of other distinctions. Click audio bar above for more details (“Dr. Goldson Discusses Reopen Details”).

Teachers choosing to work in the classroom will have classroom resources, Wi-Fi and support to work when lessons will be recorded live and “so that provides an opportunity for parents to access those lessons at a later date with students to go back and watch this and again if they need the assistance,” Goldson says.

There will be five days of instruction during the regular school hour times.

“We've built in opportunities for breakout sessions for small group instruction, especially for special education students that are English language learning students,” she adds.

Wednesdays will include a special overview of classes. “Students will experience every class – all eight classes, all content areas. Teachers will be able to do small group instruction on content delivered on Monday or Tuesday, help them with homework…to help them with their schedule.”

The school system has purchased an additional 50,000 laptops for students this fall.

To aid with emotional issues students may be facing, PGCPS has included opportunities for both individual and small-group support and 30-minute lessons at the elementary level on social-emotional support and strategies at the secondary level. Teachers are receiving training for this work.

The big question: As a parent how to juggle school needs with this new process? How will single parents adjust? What daycare strategies are possible?

“We are asking teachers to do live lessons because our students [and their parents] at the elementary level appreciated the interaction that they have with their teachers,” says Dr. Goldson. “But we are also asking them to record those lessons and then upload them to the school’s website so that a parent who has a full-time job and who needs to go back and access the lesson, can.”

The CEO says that parents will still need to interact directly with the teachers to be certain that adjustments are made where necessary in terms of coordination that fits with the parent’s schedule. This will allow the student to be on a more flexible academic schedule and for the school to be aware of that schedule so the student isn’t penalized for perceived missed classes, lessons etc.

Daycare is a constant conversation at PGCPS. Ideas and programs are evolving in real-time.

“We are looking at how we can restructure our before and aftercare school programs,” Goldson says.  “There is not a need for before and aftercare. There is a need [now] for a full day [program]. We are looking at how we can utilize the staff that would have done before and aftercare to serve as facilitators while we have a certain number of seats at the schools since they are not being used where students are socially distancing from one another and that before and aftercare provider is literally there just monitoring their online instruction which now allows the parent to work full time and the student to experience the distance learning model,” Goldson says.

The County is also launching a $2 million assistance program for childcare providers who were hit hard by the pandemic.

More to come. Watch this space.