Virtual learning plan is in place for WC schools if needed

Chromebooks are being provided to students in need

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White County Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger recently told board members, while schools began making telephone calls and teachers began preparing students, that the district has a plan in place to facilitate a short return

“The recent snow days are helping our numbers,” Dronebarger said. “All of our numbers are in the green – both quarantines and positive cases.”

Dronebarger, once again, as he has throughout the current school year, referred to the traffic light system of judging the status of COVID-19 across the school district. ,

“We continue to teach in-person five days a week, and we are teaching quarantined students in their homes virtually,” he said.

Dronebarger told the board that recently the district, through a partnership with Ben Lomand Connect and through the use of grants from Caney Fork Electric and TVA, was able to provide internet to the homes of students who did not have a way to access their virtual learning sites.

“We are paying internet fees for those families through the end of the year,” Dronebarger said, and then added that through quarantines, mask mandates, and virtual learning policies he felt that White County schools were doing well in taking care of their students. “We are managing this as well as anyone in Tennessee.”

Dronebarger said the district plans to closely monitor the number of students who are being quarantined and, should they rise to numbers close to what they were seeing before the Thanksgiving holiday, use a district-wide virtual week as a reset.

“We got rescued by holiday breaks, Thanksgiving and then Christmas, but there are no such breaks in the near future,” he said. “If we see those numbers rising – and I suspect they will – we will go on a week of virtual learning, but we will give families time to prepare.”

Dronebarger indicated the plan included alerting families the week before the scheduled break so they could make arrangements for childcare. The plan would also include sending home Chromebooks for families who need them for their students to be successful with virtual learning.

Board Chairman Jayson McDonald asked Dronebarger how close the district was to being able to provide one Chromebook to every student in the district.

“We are not there yet,” Dronebarger said. “We are maybe two-to-one, so siblings will have to share.”

Dronebarger then told the board that should the district revert to virtual learning for a week, all faculty and staff would be working.

“Aids and staff will be making phone calls to homes asking what they can do to help students access their virtual lessons while teachers are live teaching,” he explained, saying that their salaries were already in the budget so they would be sure they had the opportunity to work.

Diana Haston, board member, asked if a one-week break was enough time to help curtail the spread of COVID. Dronebarger pointed to the extended Thanksgiving break as evidence that a total of nine days, when both weekends are included, was enough to get most quarantined students back to class and reset the district’s numbers and start again.

“We are not close to that – not in the next couple of weeks – but we will be monitoring it,” Dronebarger said.

Dronebarger stated there is no set date as of yet or even a guarantee that a virtual week is coming, but he said that preparation was the key to staying ahead of the curve and eliminating as much learning loss as possible.

“But, if we have to, we will take a week of virtual and press reset,” he said.    

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