In a letter directly to parents, Superintendent Andrew Pulver has asked parents of the system’s students to comment on the one of many potential models for how school will be conducted in the fall.
“We know that there have been many stories in the news and media regarding how schools will operate this fall,” said Pulver. “For many of our families, the constant, and often conflicting stories, simply create confusion and raise questions about the future for our own students,” he added.
Pulver said the system is actively participating and working closely with both the California Department of Education and Orange County Task Force on reopening schools.
Additionally, he said, “our Educational Services Department is forming a committee with teacher representatives from every school and department to help explore what teaching and learning will look like next year.”
Pulver said LAUSD is awaiting guidance from state and local agencies, such as the California Department of Education, California Department of Public Health and Orange County Health Care Agency, all of which will be used to further develop plans for reopening schools in the fall of 2020.
Pulver asked parents to participate, informing them that “in no way,” were they “committing to anything” by doing so. The Superintendent said is was important, however, to understand how parents and guardians felt about the past ten weeks with Emergency Distance Learning.
Please take a moment to read through the three models below prior to taking the survey. Additionally, please understand that the survey begins with feedback from our Emergency Distance Learning and moves into feedback on the current contingency planning models from the least restrictive model to what could be the most restrictive. Each question informs us something unique about your current perspective on reopening schools.
The survey gave parents the following potential models to choose from:
- Traditional In-Person School Model- In this model, Schools could reopen under a normal/traditional schedule and environment, with little to no restrictions and normal class size ratios.
- Hybrid School Model (In-person & Virtual) – In this model, Schools could reopen with students attending school in-person for a portion of instruction (reduced student ratio), while participating in virtual/remote learning for a portion of instruction. There are many models in which a hybrid model could operate. For example, a half-day model, where 50% of students attend a morning session of on-campus schooling and the other 50% of students attend an afternoon session of on-campus schooling, while all students receive the remaining 50% of instruction virtually. Another model could have students attending on-campus schooling 2-3 days a week and learning remotely the remainder of the week.
- Virtual Learning School – In this model, Schools could remain closed for on-campus schooling and students participate in a 100% remote, virtual/remote learning program at home. Please know that a remote learning program that would be deployed this fall would be different than the Emergency Distance Learning program that was deployed when schools unexpectedly closed this past March. The 2020-2021 virtual/remote learning program would include all components of student accountability from attendance, completion of schoolwork and assessment, with the continuous progression through rigorous grade level standards.
Pulver informed the parents that it was possible that “more than one model will be implemented next year.
In addition, the system has created surveys specific to elementary grades and secondary schools. Parents were given until this past weekend to make their opinions known to the system.
