The Buena Vista School District (BVSD) Board of Directors met Monday, April 6 to review progress on two fronts; both related to the response to the coronavirus pandemic known as COVID-19. Yates said that the School District has been ramping up distance learning, but has faced hurdles.
“Our teachers are calling every student who hasn’t turned in work. We know some don’t have [Internet] access, and some needed the prompt to get going. These direct contact points are more middle and high school-focused,” said Yates.
“Our Principals are offering virtual meetings for parents, where we’re asking ‘what is hard so far – what can we do about this or that challenge’ ?… the challenge is that some percentage of them don’t have [Internet] access at all.”
Buena Vista School District staff and volunteers hand out Grab and Go lunches on April 3. The lunch program gets nutrition to students and families as the community deals with the public health and economic emergency created by COVID-19.
“We ordered [WiFi] hot spots for places to give students access, but they are back ordered,” said Yates. “We got five [hot spots] through Verizon and that broker went to the top of Trout Creek Pass today [for setup] but we still don’t have much success. We’ve investigated places around town, but those aren’t very reliable. We’re still hoping for more.”
Yates explained the numeric challenge faced by all Colorado schools, not just rural schools. “We aren’t alone – we know there are Denver schools that have like 40 thousand students who don’t have access. So we’re brainstorming – we are thinking perhaps we could use our parking lots.”
She explained that as part of the school’s current construction project, they had the sports field press box wired for Internet. The district is checking to see if it could use that switch on site – so it would be available to give Internet access to more students. “We’re realizing some students might be working sitting in cars, or social distancing on buses. We’d have to figure that out.”
The BV School Board also got an update on the growth of the school’s lunch program, which has been retrofitted to a ‘grab and go’ food concept to help the districts families in economic distress.
“We began with 40 meals and this week we’re around 375 meals,” said School Superintendent Lisa Yates. She said school staff, and guidance counselors have been handing out the meals in a drive-through format at Avery Parsons Elementary School where the lunches are made.
“We’re serving five days a week, and each one get a bag with both breakfast and lunch. It’s been a steady stream of parents coming through; a mixture of folks glad to make the connection with school for their kids,” said Yates. “The whole thing is surreal– images of masks and gloves and people. It’s a lot, but I’ve heard from a lot of parents coming through that seeing people they know, dressed like that helps kids understand that it’s all of us together.”
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