Arkansas educators, parents, students and government leaders worked Monday to adjust to the new normal of distance learning, grab-and-go school meals and lots of reschedulings and cancellations.
As of today, all public schools -- traditional districts and charter schools -- will be closed at least until March 30. Many private schools are doing the same. March 23-27 is spring break for all public school districts.
In the Shirley School District, which was closed to students for the first time Monday, teachers and staff worked to deep clean the school and then packed sack meals and delivered them to students.
"All meals were provided free of charge to students and delivered via normal school bus routes. Over 200 meals were delivered," Shirley Superintendent Tyrene Gardner said Monday afternoon. "If there were ever a time for us to come together and take care of one another, it is now. I am proud to work alongside such a committed and dedicated team."
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"We're doing OK," Barbara Warren, the superintendent of the Dollarway School District, said Monday about her district that has been closed since Friday in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Since the end of last week, Warren said, Dollarway employees first worked to notify families of the closure, and are now in the throes of sanitizing classrooms and buses, sharing online resources on academics and virus prevention with parents, and developing a plan for alternative methods of instruction, Warren said.
The Jefferson County district is one of just a handful of the state's 238 traditional districts without an already state-approved alternative instruction plan to be used for up to 10 days when campuses are closed for inclement weather, utility outages and contagious diseases. It is a district's prerogative to submit a plan of online and/or take-home paper lessons for state approval.
Warren said she and her staff will have alternative instruction plans ready in the event that school closures go beyond what is now the March 30 reopening date for schools statewide. Already, Dollarway students use online resources for some of their high school work, so preparing a plan won't be a stretch, she said.
In the 23,000-student Little Rock School District, breakfast, lunch and dinner meals were distributed Monday to those who could get to get to designated schools and library branches to get the meals.
Those meals are available to all school-age students regardless of whether they attend public, private, charter or parochial schools in the city.
Additionally, the district sent out some school buses to deliver meals to students who have special needs, said Pamela Smith, a spokesman for the district.
TESTING PROGRAMS
Also Monday, national college-entrance exam companies announced changes in their upcoming test dates.
ACT has moved the April 4 national ACT test date to June 13 in response to concerns regarding the spread of the coronavirus, the company announced Monday. All students registered for the April 4 test date will receive an email from ACT in the next few days informing them of the postponement and instructions for next steps, company officials said. "ACT is committed to making every effort to help those students impacted by this test date change, particularly those high school seniors who are facing deadlines for fall 2020 college admission," said Marten Roorda, chief executive officer for ACT.
While most Arkansas high school students take the ACT exam, several hundred students also take the College Board's SAT college entrance exam.
The SAT that was set for May 2 has been canceled, as has the March 28 makeup exams for the March 14 administration. The previously scheduled June 6 test date has not been changed, but more information about testing opportunities will be forthcoming, according to the College Board website.
In response to inquiries from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, several colleges said the change in date won't affect their admissions process. Students who take a later exam can still be admitted to the schools.
Representatives of the colleges, however, noted that their admissions processes are changing generally as a result of covid-19, as they are canceling large recruiting events and many campus tours and visits. The cessation of in-person instruction at kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools also means less access to high school students.
Hendrix College plans a virtual campus tour today.
Suzanne McCray, dean of admissions and vice provost for enrollment at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, said that scholarship offers for 2020 are already out there, so the test date change will have no impact on seniors taking a later test.
"Students who increase their scores with the June 13 exam can still be admitted to the University, though they will have a little less time to schedule orientation, but we will accommodate any student admitted in the fall," McCray said.
"As far as campus tours are concerned, most students have already made a decision for the fall of 2020," she said. "Most of the students missing out on tours over the next two months are juniors. We have increased and are continuing to increase our virtual outreach, and we are adding additional campus preview days in the summer."
Bryan Terry, Arkansas State University vice chancellor for Enrollment Management, said: "This change will not be a problem for any students applying to Arkansas State University because we have consistently accepted test scores through the June test for students in the past."
One testing program that has not been rescheduled is the Arkansas administration of the ACT Aspire exams for public school third-through-10th graders. The window for giving that test -- which is required by the U.S. Department of Education as a means of holding schools responsible for student learning -- is April 6 through May 8. Texas and Washington have already announced plans for canceling their statewide exams.
"We haven't asked for a waiver from the federal government for statewide testing," Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman Kimberly Mundell said Monday. "Our first priority is to mitigate the spread of the virus. We'll address assessment options as they become necessary."
RESOURCES AND WAIVERS
Arkansas' Division of Elementary and Secondary Education has created a web page devoted to covid-19 that is accessible from the division's home page: dese.ade.arkansas.gov or https://bit.ly/2Wk8Uxi.
The page includes information on the virus, health care, mental health care, digital learning options, and the recent waiver from the federal government on rules for distributing school meals while schools are closed.
The U.S Department of Agriculture has now approved a waiver of certain rules regarding school meals as the result of school closures. The federal waiver provided to the state Division of Elementary and Secondary Education's Child Nutrition Unit allows for feeding students in ways similar to what occurs in summer programs.
The flexibility allows for approved districts to provide meals to be taken and consumed offsite, allowing for social distancing. The waiver, which also allows the meals to be served at non-school sites, is good through June 30, or upon expiration of the federally declared public health emergency, whichever is earlier.
In conjunction with the City of Little Rock and other community partners, the Little Rock School District will continue to provide grab-and-go breakfast and lunch services to all students who reside in Little Rock at the satellite sites.
For this week, meals will be available from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the following locations:
• Chicot Elementary, 11100 Chicot Road.
• Booker Magnet, 2016 Barber St.
• King Elementary, 905 MLK Drive.
• Romine Elementary, 3400 Romine Road.
• Stephens Elementary, 3700 W. 18th St.
• Terry Elementary, 10800 Mara Lynn Road.
• McClellan High, 9417 Geyer Springs Road.
• Wakefield Elementary, 75 Westminister Drive.
Additionally, certain branches of the Central Arkansas Library System are providing lunch and dinner meals from 11 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the following locations:
• Dee Brown Library.
• McMath Library.
• Sue Cowan Williams Library.
Transportation to the different meal sites is available through Rock Region Metro transit system. Route details are on the transit system's website: rrmetro.org
Little Rock School District partners in the food and transportation initiative are Central Arkansas Library System, City of Little Rock, Clinton Foundation, Hunger Relief Alliance and World Central Kitchen.
The Little Rock School District is providing home delivery of breakfast and lunch for identified special needs students, who currently use District transportation, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
In regard to meal service for the week of spring break, which is March 23-27:
• No breakfast at any sites.
• Lunch served from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at all sites.
• Dinner served from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. at all sites.
Metro on 03/17/2020