ELK GROVE, Calif. — The rest of the school year in Elk Grove might be finished from a distance after district officials announced Monday they are finding another way to teach students amid the coronavirus-forced closures.
Elk Grove Unified School District officials said the district has revised the 2019-2020 calendar weeks after closing campuses down because of COVID-19 concerns. The district was one of the first in the state to close campuses.
After consulting with the Elk Grove Education Association — a teachers union in the district that is under the umbrella of the California Teachers Association — the two sides decided they needed to respond quickly to the effects the coronavirus has had on students' learning environments.
EGUSD is the state's fifth largest school district by enrollment, with more than 63,000 students and 7,000 staff members, including substitute teachers.
But those students will soon get to reconnect with their teachers through distance learning in a virtual classroom.
According to the district, beginning Wednesday, March 25, teachers will be given instructions on to how to access and utilize Synergy, Zoom, Google Apps for Education, Microsoft and Edgenuity platforms in order to create a new curriculum and develop lesson plans.
On Thursday, April 16, secondary instruction will start and high school and middle school staff will start teaching through distance learning. Elementary school students will begin distance learning on April 20 after a week of Spring Break.
The end of the school year will follow the traditional calendar for all students across the district which ends on May 29, 2020.
The district is working to check out Chromebooks and hotspots for families in need, and 8,000 additional hotspots are scheduled to arrive in early April.
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