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St. Vrain Valley School District’s venture into fully online learning for students is being given harsh reviews by many parents, including those who say instruction through iPads and other virtual means has led to frustration and feelings of isolation among their children.
“My sixth grader seems completely unengaged from his classes, and has to stay at the house all day since there’s no in-person option,” Dan Maloit said in an email. Maloit is a parent of three St. Vrain Valley students, who all have had problems with online learning since classes began Aug. 18.
Maloit founded St. Vrain Educational Advocates, a group of 600 parents who say their children are suffering unseen negative consequences of the current Colorado Department of Health guidelines for schools dealing with COVID-19. The state’s guidelines helped prompt the district to move to online learning at least through the end of September.
St. Vrain Valley School Superintendent Don Haddad is hosting a virtual town hall meeting tonight to discuss proposed plans to return to in-person learning. On hand, will be officials from the Boulder County Public Health including executive director Jeff Zayach.
The town hall, which begins at 6 p.m., can be seen live at http://vimeo.com/svvsd.
Town hall live blog
The Leader will be live tweeting from tonight's town hall and will be following other social media feeds for comments and input on the discussion. Follow along on Twitter, @LongmontLeader, or click here to view our live blog.
Haddad and members of the St. Vrain Valley school board say they are frustrated with the state’s guidelines that call for mass quarantines should a teacher or student show symptoms or have a positive test for COVID-19.
Haddad earlier this month told the school board he would order an immediate return to in-person learning based on COVID-19 statistics in Boulder County.
“Our goal remains to return to some form of in-person learning as soon as we determine that it is both safe and feasible to do so,” Haddad told parents in an email sent earlier this month.
Maloit’s group wants the state health department as well as Boulder County Public Health and the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment to amend the rules requiring the mass quarantine of all contacted people if a student or teacher exhibits symptoms or has a positive test for COVID-19. The group wants a more targeted quarantine of affected people until they test COVID-19 negative or no longer exhibit COVID-19 symptoms.
School districts, charter schools and private schools are all being left to interpret the COVID-19 Colorado Department of Health guidance differently and various reopening plans are being used throughout the state, from online-only learning to hybrid or fully in-person classes, Maloit said.
He said the current online model benefits students from upper-class families with the disposable income to hire teachers and tutors to manage privately run pods, which are small groups of students being taught by paid instructors, Maloit said.
St. Vrain Educational Advocates group claims online learning is causing students to suffer from various forms of emotional problems because of isolation. Those impacted include all of his children, including his sixth grade son, he said.
“He asks me every night if he can just go back to school,” Maloit said. “He has no interaction with the kids in his classes, and can’t tell me what anyone’s names are. Throw in (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and he ends up forgetting to eat when I’m not home to remind him. His notes are a haphazard mess on scraps of paper, no matter how many notebooks I give him.”
The district has counselors available to help students with issues surrounding isolation and other problems, Haddad told school board members.
“We have specialists to help families and students if they are having problems,” he said. “Those resources are available if they need them.”
Parents also say teachers have largely risen to the challenge, reaching out to students when they can to help those who need extra assistance.
“The teachers have been phenomenal,” said parent Ashely Kaveh. “They are dealing with the cards they have been dealt.”
Parent Angela Wilson said all of her children have had problems dealing with online learning including her son, a senior who was formerly outgoing but now has lost his motivation for learning.
“You can’t just sit home and watch classes all day,” Wilson said. “All he does is just crawl back into bed and sleep all day.”
Her other son deals with severe anxiety, she said. “But he still, despite everything, would rather be in class and be around people,” Wilson said.
Kaveh said her kindergartner’s first day was plagued by technical glitches. “Within the first 20 minutes her screen froze and we lost connection with the teacher three times,” she said.
Her daughter also has problems following instructions from her teacher. “She just wants to go to school and to see her so frustrated … is just heartbreaking,” Kaveh said.
Megan Pauline Fitzpatrick Quinn said her three kids also have had challenges with the online approach. They vary from technical glitches to social isolation.
Her ninth grade daughter has been cut off from her friends on student council and her various school clubs.
“The only way she’s dealt with it is through her job at a nursing home,” Fitzpatrick Quinn said.
Her sixth grade daughter, however, has thrived the last few weeks.
“She is now getting straight As, because online learning has taken away the social pressure,” Fitzpatrick Quinn said. “She has her snack, does her work and it’s all low pressure.”
