On Tuesday, August 25th, Grand Rapids Public Schools students will begin the 2020-2021 school year from home. Having announced the decision to postpone in-person instruction in late July, the district is aiming to slow the spread of COVID-19 while still supporting and educating 15,000 students throughout Grand Rapids. New GRPS Superintendent Dr. Leadriane Roby, Ph.D. took up her position just six weeks ago on July 1, and sat down with Rapid Growth to reflect on the challenges of leading a school district in the middle of a pandemic.
"It's extremely unique … it wasn't the entry that I was anticipating,” says Roby about starting her position amid a global health crisis. However, she remains positive, using the time to prepare and better understand her new community. "It's almost like visiting a museum where there's no one else there,” she says. "I've been able to be a true observer.”
Prior to her move to GRPS, Roby served as Assistant Superintendent for Richfield Public Schools in Richfield, MN. The GRPS board’s approval of her hire was announced in late February, just before the country plunged into a series of statewide lockdowns due to the novel coronavirus. Remotely, Dr. Roby and Dr. Ron Gorman —
who served a one-year term as interim superintendent beginning July 2019 — worked to determine best strategies for managing a large school district’s needs for education, health, and safety.
"We had been in constant communication,” says Roby, about the collaboration between the two. Together they shared unique stumbling blocks and successes in their respective communities as they navigated COVID-19. They also sought parent feedback, sending out a series of district-wide surveys to "invite our parents to weigh in on what their needs were,” says Roby.
What they found was that parents and staff were trepidatious about the return to in-person instruction. "People do not feel comfortable and still do not feel comfortable. There are a lot of unknowns related to this,” says Roby. Given the feedback,
the district announced on July 27 that the first 9 weeks of instruction would be conducted remotely.
While this decision addresses the health risks of returning to school right now, Roby understands that many challenges exist with virtual learning. "For every grade span, there’s a piece about in-person learning … that human connection is missing for everybody,” she says. "It's not just our earliest learners.”
Roby notes that for every age and grade, teachers will adopt lesson plans that account for some of the hurdles of instruction via a screen, implementing strategies like shorter lessons with frequent breaks. "A 4-year-old’s attention span is very different than a 14-year-old’s attention span,” says Roby.
"It's not going to be the same as in person, but none of this is.”
Roby is also considering adopting new measures that will help to support cross sections of the community.
One such strategy involves activating GRPS campuses as childcare locations, all of which currently maintain such licensing through Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). “If requested or mandated through executive order, we could launch them in quadrants around the city to support essential workers' to provide childcare and learning. This would be for school-aged students,” says Roby.
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GRPS staff distribute meals at Grab and Go Meal sites.
GRPS will also continue to offer translated learning materials for ESL students in Spanish, Swahili, and Kinyarwanda for parents upon request.
Addressing hunger for district students has consistently been a top priority for the district. GRPS will continue to offer two meals per day for all of its students, expanding from its handful of summer sites to 16 grab-and-go meal sites once school begins. Roby notes that she is aware that these student meals do not go far enough to support whole families struggling with food insecurity, and is working with other local organizations to connect families to additional resources.
“Within Grand Rapids there are lots of organizations, places of worship, [and] social organizations that are partnering with the city and the district to offer food for those other needs,” she says.
Roby is also concerned with accessibility issues regarding technology and remote learning, and has implemented a one-to-one policy for devices; that is, “Every child that is enrolled in GRPS will have his/her own device,” says Roby, to complete assignments and connect with their teachers. This is a big adjustment from the spring when, after schools unexpectedly shut down, the district was only able to provide devices two-to-one, or only one per household. GRPS is further increasing access by partnering with local internet providers to offer mobile hotspots to families without a home internet connection.
With all of these measures and more, Roby notes that parent and community feedback has been "Overwhelmingly positive,” adding that "People have been responding to us though their questions or through emails, stating they're very appreciative that we have decided to go this route.”
Of course, "We've also gotten some negative feedback too,” she concedes. "Everybody is not going to be happy in whatever way we would have decided … virtual, hybrid, or in person … and we recognize that.”
Roby has also been in contact with other superintendents in the area as they work through their own reopening plans, and supports the decisions of each individual school district to protect and educate the children in their own communities. "As I'm getting to know the other superintendents, they are doing what's best for their community,” she says.
For her, the team at GRPS, and the 15,000 students in the district, the data suggests that a 9-week virtual plan is the best route. However, if cases improve and/or Governor Whitmer makes the decision to move the state into Phase 5 of
MI Safe Start Plan, GRPS would be eager to reopen fully, according to Roby. "Eventually yes, we would like to move back to what would be considered traditional school.”
Photo courtesy Grand Rapids Public Schools.
For more information on GRPS’ return to school considerations, visit grps.org/all-grps-news-events/1044-welcome-back-to-school.