- April 24, 2024
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With distance learning beginning for all Volusia students on Monday, March 30 — a process the district superintendent acknowledged will likely encounter problems in its beginning stages — the School Board held a virtual meeting on Friday, March 27, providing answers for some of the most pressing questions by students and parents alike.
Volusia County Schools superintendent Scott Fritz said no school grades will be calculated this year due to COVID-19, and that there will be no end-of-course exams or Florida Standards Assessments testing. International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education (IB and AICE) testing has also been cancelled.
Advance Placement testing will be conducted in a modified manner online. The district has posted videos aimed at parents and employees regarding what to expect with distance learning on its website, vcsedu.org.
This is the first time Volusia has gone through something like this, Fritz said, and that there will be issues to work through.
“But I will say this — we will be a strong school district for having gone through this," Fritz said. "I do believe that as awful as this pandemic is, it will certainly change education forever.”
VCS has agreements with teachers' unions ensuring all permanent, regularly scheduled employees will get paid during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. VCS is also able to redirect funding from federal grants and the Florida Education Finance Plan allocations to purchase technology for students.
This last week, the district has been working to make sure children in kindergarten to fifth grade have technology at home to facilitate the distance learning. Fritz said VCS deployed over 5,000 iPads for students at 45 different schools. Paper packets were issued to students who don't have internet or didn't want to utilize an iPad.
The district will work to distribute laptops to students in sixth through twelfth grade from April 6 to 8. The laptops took a little longer due to them having been previously allocated toward FSA testing, Fritz explained.
Currently, the distance learning plan only spans 10 days.
School Board Member Linda Cuthbert said there has been a lot of misinformation and rumors out in the community, and urged parents to stay up to date with official information coming from VCS. She added that people should keep in mind there was no time to instate a pilot program to ease the entire district into this transition.
“We’re going live right away," Cuthbert said. "We really appreciate the patience and the understanding from our students.”
School Board Member Carl Persis inquired about whether graduations for seniors will still be held. Fritz said the district plans to meet with student government associations to get their input, but that they'll need to think outside of the box.
At some point, there will be a return to normalcy, Fritz said, adding that there's no reason graduations and other events can't happen at a different time.
“There’s no reason why a prom can’t happen in July," Fritz said.
Persis also spoke about the impact of student grades. Earlier in the meeting, a Seabreeze High School student called in and expressed VCS should consider weighing fourth quarter grades less than the others.
“There’s about at least five or 10 students at every high school that are trying to be the valedictorian and so forth, so these grade point averages mean a lot to these students who have worked so hard for so long," Persis said. "They certainly want to make sure that their efforts are going to be rewarded at the end of the year.”
School Board Chair Ida Wright said the district is entering a different paradigm, and that though COVID-19 has created an impact, the district is adjusting to its new virtual reality.
“We will get through this together," Wright said. "It is not easy, but through all of the pain we will see some good product out of this.”
