The Portage Township Schools have upgraded their bandwidth capacity in advance of a return to virtual learning for the first nine weeks of the school year beginning Aug. 12.
The school board approved the rollout plan Monday that officials stressed will focus on student engagement while children are removed from their traditional classrooms and sitting in bedrooms or family rooms.
In some cases, working parents may be sending them to day care settings at the Portage Family YMCA or the Boys and Girls Club.
The plan comes together as school districts struggle to begin the school year during the continuing coronavirus pandemic that shuttered schools across Indiana last March. Most Northwest Indiana districts plan to reopen traditional schooling, but also offer parents an option of keeping their children home for remote learning classes.
Assistant Superintendent Michael Stephens outlined the Portage plan, saying the district researched best practices for virtual learning across the country. He said they also checked with the Indiana Superintendents Association and the Indiana Association of School Boards to make sure they received the most up-to-date data.
Two types of instruction will make up the virtual learning format. One focuses on the teacher’s lesson to the entire class that students will log in and take part in, similar to the traditional setting.
“We want our children to stay in a routine so when we do come back in October, they don’t have to re-learn the system,” he said.
Achieving a balance will be one of the biggest challenges, he said.
“We don’t want to have our children overtaxed with onscreen time, but also don’t want time left without instruction,” he said.
To ease the screen time, students will be allotted time to do assignments and work in their own time.
Stephens said they can also return to the classroom lesson to review their teacher’s instruction at any time.
Stephens said a drop-off system is being established for the repair of student laptops, as well. He said devices will be isolated and cleaned before returned to service.
He said technology assistants will be in place at each school to function as a “help desk” to assist with problems.
On July 13, Portage announced it wouldn’t return to in-school classes next month because of rising cases of COVID-19 in Porter County. Last week, the Gary Community School Corp. said its students will start the year with online learning, as well.
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
