Reporter’s Notebook: Parents, stay out of the virtual classroom
Grafton’s teachers are in danger of burning out under the new hybrid school plan, and the School Committee is hoping they can arrange for a fix.
With students alternating weeks in the classroom and weeks learning remotely — and the need to adapt lessons for each model — teachers need more time to plan. The School Committee is now meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. to discuss adjustments that may impact the school calendar.
The meeting will be held over Zoom.
**********
There’s another fix that teachers need and it’s a simple at-home fix.
Parents, please stay out of your child’s virtual classroom.
“Please do not interrupt instruction to ask a question. This is teacher-student time,” Millbury Street Elementary School Principal Joanne Stocklin wrote in a recent email to parents. “Understandably, it can be very unsettling for parents to hear an adult voice other than the teachers while their child is online.”
Parents should also stay out of the Google Meets scheduled by teachers, she wrote.
“Remaining in the Google Meets after instruction to talk with other parents and students without the teacher present is not in adherence to the district Acceptable Use of Technology policy,” Stocklin said.
**********
After a tumultuous Sept. 11 meeting where a simple election of a new chairman was not achieved, Grafton’s SEPAC is making a second attempt.
A Special Education Parent Advisory Council, required in every public school district by Massachusetts law to advise the School Committee on matters that pertain to the education and safety of students with disabilities. Membership is open to all parents of children with disabilities and it is a self-governing group that makes its own bylaws.
While the meeting ended with an agreement to try again last Thursday, the week ended without a word. In the meantime, chair Melissa Lackey apparently stepped down and acting chair Lisa Nelson has stepped in to set the meeting for Friday, October 2 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. A link has not been posted yet.
Hopefully this time it won’t take more than an hour for the roll call.
**********
Everyone has seen people out and about without masks, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. So what happens if a student refuses to wear a mask in Grafton schools?
Posted in an email to Grafton Middle school parents:
Protocol for responding to student who is not wearing a mask or is not wearing mask properly: In the event that a student removes their mask or does not wear their mask without permission, we will follow our philosophy of restorative justice and supporting positive behavior. The process will be as follows:
- Teacher gives verbal redirection in class
- Teacher conference with student in hallway and reviews expectations and how refusing to comply causes harm to members of the community.
- Counselor conferences with student
- Principal conferences with student
- Parent called and given option to have their child learn remotely in lieu of suspension
