Students ‘still learning’ in virtual; board sets calendar

Despite an “unusual” school year, Hancock County students are continuing to learn, superintendent Kyle Estes told the school board at Thursday night’s regularly scheduled meeting, which was held via Google Meet due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“If you rewind 12 months ago no one would’ve ever thought we were going to be teaching in the middle of a pandemic or trying to do virtual learning in the middle of a pandemic and it seemed completely foreign,” Estes said. “I even pulled out our emergency procedure guide from last year and it’s got pandemic and we’re off script. We’re just writing it right now as we go, and doing an effective job for the circumstances we’ve all been dealt.”

Students began the school year with virtual-only classes after a strong recommendation from Governor Andy Beshear, but began in-person classes on September 28, before returning to all virtual the first week of November. Last Thursday Beshear announced that all schools, public and private, would be required to stop all in-person classes at least into December.

Teachers are leading online classes, using videos and virtual assignments, which have meant parents and guardians are partially responsible for ensuring their students do their work, but while the situation is less than ideal, it’s better than some might think.

“We have seen evidence that even surprised some of us I believe, with some diagnostics that we’ve given the students are still moving forward,” Estes said. “Now we may not be talking about growth or on grade level like we have traditionally in those school years, but students are still learning.”
Estes told the board that he believes the community and the district will be stronger after having gone through the pandemic.

“It’s a very difficult time for our community as a whole and our entire country and we’re going to make the best of it,” he said. “If we continue to focus on having compassion for each other I think we’ll see that we’ll all be better off.”

The board also voted to approve the calendar for the 2021-2022 school year, which will begin on August 23 and run 170 days, ending on May 25.

Fall break is scheduled for October 4-8, and spring break will be April 4-8. The first 10 days missed will be made up using NTI.

dave.hancockclarion@gmail.com