Yesterday on the local news, Somerville and Danvers were highlighted for their schools’ excellent response to this pandemic. That prompted me to wonder how things were going here.
The NPS website has information about meals that can be picked up outside Newton North and Newton South stating today, remote school committee meetings and some sort of plan to have enrichment actives at home. I’m wondering how effective these plans are for those who need them and are the schools doing enough to keep our students up to date in their education. Anyone know?
Food Scarcity
We know school closures may significantly impact families in many ways, especially those experiencing food insecurity. Beginning on Tuesday, March 17th, Grab ‘n Go meals will be available to NPS students in need at both Newton North and Newton South High Schools. Please see details below: Time: Between 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Location at South: Front parking loop Location at North: Parking area near auditorium entrance Additional assistance locations for those experiencing food scarcity can be found on our website at: www.newton.k12.ma.us/covid19
At this point, we have no idea of how the NPS is going to handle instruction. I hope when the video of last night’s school committee meeting is released, I will sigh with relief.
We can’t simply give students fun games to play. Math is ruthlessly cumulative. You can’t skip orders of operation this year and jump into geometry next year. Neither can you cram both into next year. For English, if kids miss grammar this year, you can’t expect them to write compositions well next year.
I have talked to friends with kids in peer districts. The peer districts are sending surveys to parents to figure out which families have internet. Written content is being planned for families without. One specific example is Weston, which is rolling out “School at home” this Thursday. They are telling parents “that students will remain connected to their teachers during this time…”
Weston’s 3 to 8 grade MCAS scores are ranked 1/15 in ELA, 3/15 in Math, and 3/15 in Science. Newton’s respective rankings are 13/15, 12/15, and 14/15. Let’s follow Weston.
Jeffrey, I agree. I haven’t been able to find anything about remote classes in Newton for those with computers – or any other way for our students to keep up with their education.
My daughter lives in Cheshire, CT where they are holding on-line classes from 9:30 – 2:00 every day. I know not all of NPS has one-on-one chrome books or some other educational laptop but surely they can do what Weston is doing to find out who doesn’t have a computer at home.
These students need more than enrichment activities.