NEWS
A12 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2020
Learning
Continued from Page A1
in an attempt to give every
one of the district’s approxi-
mately 1,400 students access
within walking distance of
their home.
School parking lots now
have free Wi-Fi, and after
conducting a citywide sur-
vey about internet access,
neighborhoods with the
lowest number of house-
holds with internet access
also have Wi-Fi hotspots set
up. Sipe said they also pur-
chased 90 devices students
can take home for internet
access, and are prioritizing
seniors in high school who
don’t have a hotspot within
walking distance of their
home.
Students are also getting
paper homework packets on
a regular basis, which they
can either take a picture of
and email to their teacher,
or send back with the people
dropping off a new packet.
Last Wednesday, six
school
buses
traveled
through town, stopping at
regular intervals to drop off
bags containing breakfast,
lunch and dinner for stu-
dents as well as plastic pack-
ets containing homework,
students’ folders and note-
books from their desks, and
school supplies donated by
Walmart.
Donald Dugan, the dis-
trict’s high school and mid-
dle school music teacher,
was trailing behind one of
the buses with an SUV full
of musical instruments and
sheet music, which he was
delivering to band students
so that they could continue
practicing. He said there are
a lot of online options for
music teachers he is exper-
imenting with.
“I’m still trying to get the
kids on Google hangouts
so I can give them assign-
ments and work with them,”
he said. “I have lots of ideas,
but it’s all kind of trial and
error.”
He said he hoped parents
will encourage their students
to stick with music, as it can
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Students, parents and volunteers crowd a bus dropping off school supplies to students of the Umatilla School District on
Wednesday afternoon. The district distributed belongings that had been left at schools as well as educational materials,
lunches, instruments and laptops to those in need of them.
provide relief from stress.
At one stop in McNary,
Liz Castillo brought her chil-
dren to pick up their home-
work packets. She said so
far they had different reac-
tions to the idea of continu-
ing school online.
“One’s excited, one is not
very thrilled,” she said.
Crystal Marler, who
brought her granddaugh-
ter, was worried about the
lack of social distancing as
kids crowded up to the bus
when it stopped. But she
did appreciate all the district
was doing for its students.
“I just think Umatilla’s
done a wonderful job, with
the food, with the tablets.
They’ve got everything,”
she said.
Sophomores
Isable
Lewis and Anna Castillo
were waiting in line with
freshman Cassandra Castillo
to pick up their packets at
the stop. Lewis said she had
just gotten off a video chat
with one of her teachers, and
she even though she worried
about how COVID-19 was
affecting her education, she
felt like it would work out
alright in the end.
“This is going to mess
some stuff up, but Uma-
tilla seems capable of fixing
everything,” she said.
Sixth-grader
Viviana
Perez, who picked up items
from a bus stop Wednesday,
said she had been trying to
fill out worksheets for the
past couple of weeks, but up
until the Chromebook deliv-
eries that day, hadn’t had an
electronic device to access
online supplements.
Diego Bernal, a soph-
omore who showed up in
pajamas to grab some home-
work from a bus travel-
ing South Hill, said he had
been keeping in touch with
teachers via email and video
chat and “they’re all worried
about us and trying to keep
us on track.”
Despite being able to
continue with class work, he
said he was sad the baseball
season had been canceled
before he was able to play a
single game.
Hermiston School District
In Hermiston, students
have been receiving paper
packets of supplemental
work for grades K-5, and
breakfast and lunch for all
students, via bus routes
during week days. On Mon-
day, March 30 and again
on Thursday, the district
allowed families to check
out one Chromebooks per
household from the park-
ing lot.
Superintendent
Tricia
Mooney said at some point
the district may offer more
than one Chromebook for
families with multiple stu-
dents, but it took time for the
district’ IT department staff
to retrieve the devices from
schools, sanitize them and
ready them for checkout.
As for internet, she said
the district would be putting
out a request soon for busi-
nesses to consider offering
free internet hotspots for
students, as long as every-
one was maintaining proper
social distancing. Comcast
recently announced that it
has temporarily opened its
Xfinity Wi-Fi Network for
free nationally. People can
look up hotspots in their
area by typing in their zip-
code at https://wifi.xfinity.
com.
“We’re still working on
trying to get hotspots, but
obviously with everyone in
the same boat, they are not
easy to come by right now,”
Mooney said.
After the March 30
surprise
announcement
from the state, Mooney
said teachers are working
together across grade lev-
els and professional learn-
ing communities to come
up with distance learning
that includes everything
from homework packets to
video chats to phone calls to
interactive activities online.
Some are already putting
out “how-to” videos like
the at-home workout video
West Park Elementary PE
teacher Bret Favorite put
together.
“It’s going to look a lot of
different ways,” she said.
Mooney said districts
are still awaiting guidance
from the state on graduation
standards for seniors, but as
soon as ODE finishes con-
sulting with partners such
as colleges and puts some-
thing together, the district
will reach out to each of
their 350 seniors individu-
ally to talk about how they
are affected.
In accordance with
the state’s social distanc-
ing guidelines for essential
workplaces, Mooney said
teachers will be expected
to come into the school at
times, to coordinate with
colleagues or access learn-
ing materials stored in their
classrooms. But she said
they will be encouraged to
stay 6 feet apart and follow
other health guidelines, and
staff who are considered
high risk, live with some-
one in a high risk category
or don’t have child care will
be able to telecommute.
She said they are anxious
to support students during
this difficult time.
“I’ve been emphasizing
they need to focus on con-
nection and compassion
with students over correc-
tion,” she said.
Stanfield School District
Stanfield School Dis-
trict Superintendent Beth
Burton said last Wednes-
day the district sent out two
buses to deliver meals and
work packets to students,
in addition to the take-out
option set up at Bard Park.
She said they plan to do the
same drop-offs again this
Wednesday.
“We anticipate once
April 13 rolls around, we’ll
be doing something that’s
more teaching and learning,
but for this week we’re just
doing supplemental pack-
ets,” she said.
Burton said sixth through
12th graders in the district
already have Chromebooks
that they were assigned at
the beginning of the school
year, so they only need to
worry about getting devices
to the younger students.
She said the state’s
announcement sent districts
into a “whirlwind,” but she
feels most badly for students
who have had their year
disrupted.
“Our fifth-graders are
missing Outdoor School
right now,” she said.
We’re In This
TOGETHER
Let’s show our
community spirit by
supporting our local
businesses and let our
essential workers
know how much we
appreciate them.
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