The Fox C-6 School District is investing in new technology to help implement its hybrid learning model for the start of the 2020-2021 school year that will have the majority of students attending in-person classes two days per week and receiving online instruction the other three days. In addition, some students are signed up for strictly online instruction when the new school year starts Aug. 27.
In order to keep students connected to the classrooms, Fox officials have agreed to buy hotspots to give families that do not have in-home internet access. The district also is looking to buy more Chromebooks for students.
On Aug. 4, the seven-member Board of Education voted unanimously to approve two contracts with T-Mobile to buy 290 hotspots to distribute to families. Fox will pay $69,600 to use the hotspots for a 12-month period, according to the contracts.
Luke Heitert, the district’s director of technology and information, said Fox already ordered and distributed 60 hotspots from T-Mobile to families during the summer, when Fox offered online summer school classes.
“We estimate that all 350 devices will be utilized immediately and that more may be required,” Heitert said.
However, the hotspots likely will not solve internet access issues for every family in the district, Fox officials said.
Some families are in areas that do not receive adequate cell phone service for the devices to work, according to officials.
“In the rare cases where hotspots won’t help, teachers will provide students with take-home kits of pencil-and-paper activities that will be exchanged at school weekly,” Declan FitzPatrick, Fox’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, said. “We are also looking at what resources can be downloaded onto an electronic device and used offline while at home.”
Fox also expects to be able to provide a Chromebook for every student who needs one from kindergarten through 12th grade this school year, Heitert said.
The Board of Education was expected on Tuesday, after Leader deadline, to vote on a $446,913 contract with CDI Technologies to purchase 1,700 Chromebooks and the licensing agreement for them, board documents show. If that purchase is approved, every student in sixth grade through 12 would receive a Chromebook from the district, said JP Prezzavento, Fox’s communication and instructional technology coordinator
Heitert said the district already had most of the Chromebooks needed to distribute them to the students who need them, including the 230 Chromebooks that already were distributed to students who attended summer school.
The district has 11,163 students and many own their own Chromebooks, the district reported.
Fox district teachers began arriving on campuses this week to gear up for the unusual start to the upcoming school year.
Teachers new to the district began orientation on Monday, and all the remaining teachers will return Thursday.
During the orientation for teachers, which concludes on Aug. 26, they will focus on how to best teach students using the hybrid model and online instruction.
“This is a very difficult situation,” said FitzPatrick. “Our teachers and principals are amazingly resourceful and will ensure that every student is connected to a classroom, receiving constant guidance from an expert teacher, and gets regular feedback about how they are doing and what they need to work on next. Teams of Fox C-6 teachers working together to solve problems for students routinely do amazing things for kids.”
Fox’s hybrid model calls for students whose last name starts with the letters “A” through “Laf” to attend classes in person on Mondays and Tuesdays, and students whose last name begins with the letters “Lag” through “Z” to be in class on Thursdays and Fridays. They will receive online instruction the remaining days.