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WHEELING -- With live online classes happening in several Ohio County public schools, the county's school board discussed Monday night ways to improve that experience and make it a more effective learning tool for students.
The board took no action on the matter at Monday's meeting, but there were plenty of suggestions, among them mandatory attendance in those live classes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown school calendars throughout the state for a loop. Ohio County was "orange" on last Saturday's West Virginia Department of Education school openings map, which forces students in the county to learn remotely. Earlier in November, Wheeling Park High School started live-streaming classes, where students can interact with teachers live from home.
Superintendent Kim Miller said Monday that middle schools also have "dabbled" in what the county terms synchronous learning, where students and teachers are engaging at the same time, rather than students working at their own pace with lessons posted online.
What Miller, assistant superintendent Rick Jones and board members mentioned Monday was that attendance for those live online classes isn't always robust. Board President David Croft said that he heard that, of the more than 1,400 students at Wheeling Park, only about 237 participate per day in the live online classes.
That concerned some board members and led them to offer ideas on how to better increase accountability for students to attend those live classes. Board member Grace Norton suggested attendance in those classes become mandatory.
"I think we need to get a little more precise about what we expect of the students, and possibly put it into policy," Norton said.
Board member Pete Chacalos said he had heard from several teachers frustrated that they took the time to design live lessons and so few students attended. He had confidence that Ohio County students would step up to the plate and engage in those live classes, but said that confidence might have been misplaced.
"I know adjustments will need to be made for certain families and I'm sure that can be done," he said.
"But what is the answer? It looks like at this point, if they're not going to step up to the plate, it's going to need to be made mandatory."
Adjustments would need to be made, Miller said, as different families' situations may not allow for the students to attend the live classes. She said the school district had been handing out "mifis," small wireless routers that can act as mobile hotspots. Yet they don't always work so hot.
"We have distributed over 300 mifis," Miller said, "and what we're finding out is that the mifis do not live-stream."
Board member Christine Carder was concerned about how the school district could enforce mandatory class attendance. Because learning currently is remote, some of the tools used in a normal school year, like in-school suspensions, can't apply. She also was concerned that the district would need to employ more people to enforce online attendance.
In the end, she added, just because the students weren't in the live classes doesn't mean they aren't taking in the lessons.
"I certainly agree that the most important thing is for them to be there," Carder said. "I feel sorry for teachers that are providing lessons and have three students tuning in. But that doesn't mean they're not seeing it at another time during the day."
Croft wanted to assure county teachers and administrators that they weren't being criticized for the work they've done so far. The school district just wants to try improving the plan based on the feedback it gets.
Among the feedback the board received Monday from a couple of teachers who addressed them was that live online classes shouldn't be mandatory for younger children. Discussion among the board and district administrators showed hesitance in making it mandatory for younger students.
West Liberty Elementary teacher Jennifer Litzenberger told the board that her students' parents appreciate the method she has used so far — distributing work packets and recording lessons that parents can work on with their kids when it's most convenient for them.
"I can clearly tell you that at the elementary level, parents do not need more problems to work around," she said. "They're very stressed and when I talk to each of them, my heart just goes out to them."