EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. — The first day of school for Rescue Union School District students was scheduled for Aug. 11, but now it will be pushed back to the Aug. 17 due to not having the software for distance learning.
Parents received a letter stating students will have to wait an additional four days to start the school year due to a back log with software company Fuel Education, which the district uses for distance learning.
“We had a long conversation, talked with our union and decided that in order to provide the best we can for our students, we needed to push back the start of the school year,” said Superintendent Cheryl Olson.
Olson said parents should not be worried about another delay. The fall semester will start August 17.
She said the push back also gave teachers more time to get familiar with the new software.
“It gives them an extra week to prepare and get ready. When the materials do come in they will have time to learn how to use them and be ready to go on the 17th,” Olson said.
Rescue Union Schools have 3,600 students and about 22% of them have decided to continue with distance learning due to not being comfortable coming back to campus. Kim Eisenhart, a teacher within the district, said she fears catching COVID-19 due to having to come back to campus.
“I’m really nervous. I’m very scared about getting myself sick [or] getting a student sick. How to even interact with my students with a mask on? The whole thing, a lot of anxiety,” Eisenhart said.
Olson said the district reach out twice to see what teachers wanted to work from home verses coming back to campus.
“We were able to place all the general ed teachers that wanted to teach in that program. In fact ,we had to hire additional teachers from outside to fill all the spots,” Olson said.
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