As the school year and graduation ceremonies come to a close, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District is conducting a survey regarding the district’s shift to distance learning in March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What worked this spring? Where was there room for improvement? The district wants to know.
As spring break came to an end in mid-March, KPBSD closed 42 schools to students as educators developed a distance learning curriculum, for both online and offline home learning to begin March 30. To help the district plan for a optimal start to the 2021 school year in August, they are looking to capture what has been learned from the experience.
Pegge Erkeneff, KPBSD Director of Communications, discusses the overall purpose of the survey: “The biggest purpose is, one, everybody as individuals – for them to help the school district. I think it’s important to take a pause and just reflect on what did happen. What was good that came out of it? What did we struggle with, so we can earn to be better? So, I think from a personal perspective, for the older students and then the parents on behalf of their children, is to – some of the questions are asking how did it work, what did you need, what other resources did you need. Then, there’s the second half of the survey and the heart of it is what can we learn going forward as we start planning for a smart start to school in August.”
She added that a major takeaway for the district will be learning what families would like to do in the event that another health crisis takes place: “Thinking ahead, if there is a community spread or risk levels that we need to adapt how we are delivering instruction, what would a family want to do? Maybe it’s absolute that, based on family needs or anything that you’d definitely only want to be at school. Maybe you’d want to have a blended way of education happening where part of it is remote learning and part of it is at school, and if there’s a high risk scenario, then of course we’d go back to full remote learning.”
In a month or so the district is looking to reach out to families again to plan ahead: “So, in another month, we might be reaching out to families again potentially with another survey as we start delineating what would it look like and what could it look like. The Commissioner of Education for our state has told us that there won’t be a scenario where there’s no-risk next year. So, it’s smart planning to really think ahead and plan ahead.”
Parents, guardians, and high school students are invited to complete this brief online survey.
