Many Maine school districts to stay with remote learning for remainder of school year
Students have been distance learning during COVID-19 outbreak
Students have been distance learning during COVID-19 outbreak
Students have been distance learning during COVID-19 outbreak
Several Maine school districts have announced that they will stay with remote learning for the rest of the school year, and students will not return to the classroom.
The announcements came after Maine Education Commissioner Pender Makin recommended that all of the state's public schools should plan on teaching through remote or distance learning for the rest of the school year.
Makin sent that message to all 176 superintendents late Tuesday night.
School districts started responding to the call on Wednesday. Lewiston was one of the first school districts to decide to close for the rest of the year.
Portland, South Portland, Falmouth and Kittery schools, along with Regional School Unit 5, which includes Freeport, Durham and Pownal and MSAD 11, which serves the Gardiner area, have also announced they too will be offering remote learning for the rest of the school year.
Lewiston School Committee Chair Monique Roy said the district has been planning for this possibility since the outbreak surfaced in Maine last month.
"Safety has always been number one priority. We have huge buildings and it's not hard to end up in a space where you're not properly socially distancing and all of those kinds of things we're being told are super important. So rather than take a risk, we just decided to follow what we were given for guidelines," Roy said.
The decision means Roy's own son, a Lewiston High School senior, is missing out on a traditional high school graduation. Her daughter, a college senior, is also now at home, and won't have a commencement either.
"It's hard. People are dealing with all kinds of different things, and the word 'loss' comes to mind when it comes to this stuff," Roy said.
Parents, meanwhile, have to continue juggling work, family and school inside their home.
"It has been a lot of hats that I've had to wear over the last month that I was not fully prepared for," said Ashley Seymour of Bath, who has a 9-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 7-month-old at home.
Distance learning brings different challenges to every school district.
"We've got a lot of immigrants. You can't just throw out one assignment out there. Everybody needs different instruction. It's really hard to connect with the kids," said Matt Brown, a fifth-grade teacher at East End Elementary School in Portland. He also serves as the school's tech coordinator.
"There was a huge learning curve there, teaching the teachers, then teaching the students and then teaching the parents how to use it," Brown said.
Sometimes the parents need to be taught how to teach the lessons.
"Even the way we do math is so different than the way that they do math now," said Mike Hathaway, a physics teacher and coach at Leavitt High School in Turner. "That has been a learning curve for myself, having to learn common core math."
Hathaway said the challenge now is coming to grips with prolonged distance learning.
"We really want to transition our focus to mental health and well-being and connections, making sure we are reaching out to kids, having as much regular contact with them, get positive messages out there," Hathaway said.