Some Lawton Children Return To Classrooms Despite COVID
Lawton Public Schools opened its doors Monday as they welcomed students back to the classroom for the first time since schools were shut down in March due to the spread of COVID-19.
However, with the community, state and nation still battling the coronavirus pandemic, the first day of school in 2020 was unlike any other in LPS history.
Superintendent Kevin Hime was anxious to see how the process was going to work out. Even though he spearheaded the plan that was put into place, he made the rounds Monday morning to ensure everything was running smoothly.
That included the mandatory facial coverings for all students, teachers and staff members throughout the school district.
“I think our students are glad to be back in school, so wearing a mask is not a problem for them,” Hime said.
Like many districts, LPS offered families the option of either having their children return to the normal in-person class setting or distance learning. According to Hime, of the 13,000 students in the district, 5,000 signed up for virtual teaching.
But those numbers can fluctuate throughout the semester because LPS is allowing students the option to change their minds on which model of learning they prefer.
“We’re very flexible with that. The idea being that we’ve been very open and honest that we’re learning new things every day,” Hime said.
“If they chose the virtual and they decided that’s not the best option for their child, they should have the right to go back to traditional ones...We’re very, very flexible with that.”
LPS devised a unique way to handle the large overflow of students taking part in distance learning. They closed down some of the schools that were going to have a small attendance and turned them into hubs for virtual teachers.
The virtual teachers are sequestered away from not only the students but also the rest of the educators who will teach in-person.
“It’s not a new idea, but it’s new to the district to have those virtual sites. I was very excited and little bit apathetic about how those are going to work,” Hime said. “Those teachers are working hard. They’re doing a great job.”
According to Hime, the idea to create virtual hubs was the byproduct of some serious groupthink and brainstorming to create the best environment for the students to learn. And, once Hime saw the numbers of students who were going to be staying home, the virtual sites seemed to be the best answer.
Estimating that approximately 75 students attend Washington, Hime said if those students were transferred to Whittier and Lincoln, Washington could be used as a virtual site. That idea blossomed into creating as many virtual sites as possible for the district.
Hime toured Brockland on the first day of school and he liked what he saw. “You got all the sixth-grade teachers in one room; all the seventh-grade teachers in a room,” Hime said. “This is new, but ... if we’re going to do it at Lawton, we’re going to it the best.”
One issue the school district had had to deal with concerning virtual student is making sure everyone had the right equipment for distance learning. That meant getting laptops into the hands of those who do not have access to computers.
“That’s a work in progress because, obviously, we never expected to have 5,000 students,” Hime said.
“We have been checking out (laptops) from the home sites, Washington and Adams, and then you can check out from your home secondary site. We still have quite a few of the virtual students who haven’t checked them out, although I’m assuming that we’ll have quite a few virtual students who will use their own device.
“Things aren’t happening quite as fast as we’d like so, again, I think our parents have been very patient with us and worked with us very hard,” Hime said. “The checkout of those devices is ongoing, so if a parent needs a device, they can go to the site or call their student’s point of contact, and we’ll set up a way for them to get a device.”