A back-to-school unlike any other: Here’s how the first day went in Atascadero
San Luis Obispo’s first day of school kicked off Wednesday in Atascadero as students from kindergarten to 12th grade began the year in distance learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Atascadero Unified School District encompasses 13 schools educating about 4,600 students, and for most, the first day of this unusual year was yet another new experience.
“In March, we kind of had to spring into almost a crisis-type of situation to get ourselves ready for distance learning,” said Atascadero Superintendent Tom Butler. “And now, given the amount of time we’ve had, I think we’re going to see that our teachers are still developing and still learning, but they have worked so hard to approach this format with really just more robust instruction, really well-developed lessons and plans.”
Butler said that a big change for this distance learning school year is, unlike in the last half of the spring semester, teachers will be giving grades and attendance will be expected as students must log in to their classes at the scheduled time. Students will also be required to do a daily check-in with their teachers via video conference.
“Each day our teachers are building in some time where they’re able to touch base with students to make sure that they’re engaging, have an ability to get that dialogue going that doesn’t always have to be right around the academic content,” Butler said. “It’s to make sure they’re feeling well, that they’re healthy and ready for the learning experience that we have.”
Aside from a small number of technical difficulties involving students having issues logging in, or school communications landing in the spam folders of parent and student email inboxes, Butler said things have run smoothly so far.
If parents or students do have technical issues, Butler directed them to call the technology hotline on the district’s website.
The effort from district staff and teachers to prepare for the first day of school has been massive, Butler said.
Monterey Road Elementary School Principal Julie Davis said she and her teachers have been working around the clock to ensure things go smoothly.
“We care about the kids getting the best education possible. That’s why were in this position,” Davis said. “We’ve tried to remember to remind them to make sure that they’re balancing because I want them to be healthy. But I know that myself and my teachers have been learning. They’ve been online all the time getting new professional development in this area, just absorbing all that they can.”
Homeschooling program sees big enrollment increase
Atascadero Unified School District’s independent study and homeschool learning option has seen a huge increase in enrollment due to COVID-19, said Atascadero Choices in Education (ACE) Academy Principal Chris Balogh.
Typically, the fully online K-12 school has about 170 students enrolled each year, he said, but this year there are nearly 500 students enrolled. Most of the new students have just transferred over from the traditional schools to the independent study school, he said.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” Balogh said. “It’s been pretty intense. It’s been a pretty wild ride, but it’s also pretty exciting.”
Balogh said they have increased their number of teachers from about five to 17 — all of whom have been transferred over from the district’s traditional schools — and have been working around the clock to train those new teachers and prepare them for the school year.
Because ACE Academy is a fully online program that does not typically offer in-person classes even during non-pandemic times, Balogh said parents and students have enrolled either because they do not want to go back to in-person school even if the district is allowed to bring students back to campus, or they were not able to accommodate the mandatory daily check-ins with teachers via a video conference.
“Either, one, they’re they’re just concerned about the health and the virus or, two, they do not want their children to have to come to school and follow all the social distancing safety guidelines,” Balogh said. “And then some of the schedules that were set up by the regular schools that had mandatory, daily check-in, face-to-face time over the internet, didn’t work for for certain families, especially the lower grades. They just didn’t want their kids on the screen for an hour and a half.”
Now that the Atascadero district has the first day of school is under its belt, Davis said teaches and administrators can now concentrate on making sure things run smoothly while fixing any technical glitches that may arise.
“It totally is a breath of fresh air,” she said.
When do classes start for other schools?
Other districts and colleges around SLO County will begin over the next month, with all K-12 public schools under way by Aug. 25:
- Lucia Mar Unified School District: Friday, Aug. 14
- Cuesta College: Monday, Aug. 17
- Cayucos Elementary School District: Wednesday, Aug. 19
- Coast Unified School District: Wednesday, Aug. 19
- Paso Robles Joint Unified School District: Thursday, Aug. 20
- Shandon Joint Unified School District: Thursday, Aug. 20
- San Luis Coastal Unified School District: Monday, Aug. 24
- Templeton Unified School District: Tuesday, Aug. 25
- Cal Poly: Monday, Sept. 14
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 2:04 PM.
