PUSD revises policies related to remote learning and working

The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees will consider adopting several policies related to working and learning remotely while sheltering in place, and updating another policy concerning alternative credits toward graduation at the Thursday night meeting. The board convenes online at 7 p.m. May 7; a simultaneous live broadcast will be available on TV28.

PUSD sites have been dismissed since the middle of March when the regional shelter-in-place order was announced. Since then, teachers and students have been working and studying online. Listed on the consent agenda, which consists of multiple items that are considered routine and usually voted on by the board in one motion, the district said that “both of the policies are designed to be used during the COVID-19 dismissal and beyond in order to provide flexibility in educating students and structuring work schedules for district staff.”

Both policies outline and clarify their purpose as well as general expectations for students and teachers in regards to grading, materials, supplies, instructional hours and communication while working or learning from home. For example, the district’s remote working policy states, “Employee productivity shall be evaluated using a variety of criteria appropriate to working remotely that may include time spent on task completion, projects, rigor of assignments, and quality of job performance in the same manner as all employees in the same position at the assigned school or office.”

The district’s remote learning policy gives students and teachers leeway to self-direct some courses and work at their own pace, and use a variety of instructional mediums including live or prerecorded video, print materials, and online content. The policy also affirms PUSD’s commitment to “provide teachers with training and ongoing support, including technological support and guidance, to effectively implement distance learning.”

The Trustees might also update the district’s policy concerning alternative credits toward graduation for the first time in 15 years. With traditional graduation paths suddenly thrown off course by the coronavirus pandemic, PUSD has been recently working to provide seniors with alternative means to fulfill their graduation requirements and receive their diplomas. PUSD’s policy on alternative graduation credits was implemented in 2005 and hasn’t been revised since then.

The updated policy lists 10 different means for students to satisfy their course of study such as work experience, career technical education or regional occupational programs, military service and training, independent study and “practical demonstration of skills and competencies.”

In other business

* With remote learning expected to continue for a while, the Trustees will consider approving a one-year $178,000 contract for a districtwide learning management system that “allows for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses remotely” among multiple users. The software application under consideration, Edgenuity, allows teachers to monitor and view progress among their students.

A learning management system called PEAK is currently used in a limited capacity but, according to the district, “Recently students and teachers have experienced multiple limitations” and recurring issues that include a “lack of reliability,” “challenging interface for students and teachers” and “difficulty modifying to accommodate district needs.” In response to those complaints, PUSD piloted several learning management systems for teachers to use with students in grades 6 to 12 during the 2019-20 school year, “and as a result, recommends Edgenuity.”

“Given the increased system-wide need to provide flexible learning options due to possible distancing restrictions caused by COVID-19 moving to Edgenuity will increase coherence when providing students with distance learning,” the district stated in a related document.

The $178,000 contract includes unlimited use of features like digital curriculums and customized webinars. The base $140,000 price “varies based on student need” and “is expended to support virtual learning in the summer school, credit recovery, home and hospital, and independent study programs.” The remainder $38,000 “will allow for a variety of possible distance learning scenarios while providing a predictable expense not based on student usage.”

* Another vote on Thursday evening will determine whether to use $831,000 of Measure I1 funds to purchase 2,750 Internet-enabled Chromebooks and carrying cases. The district has recommended the purchase of the “new devices for these 2020-21 grade 6 and 9 students.”

A plan called the Student Device Initiative was developed by PUSD “to maximize the useful life of the take-home devices.” Students in grades 7 and 8 and high school sophomores, juniors and seniors “will keep the devices they were issued during the prior two years of the Student Device Initiative,” while sixth-graders and freshmen “will be issued a new device that they will keep until they graduate from middle and high school, respectively.”

Student devices issued to seventh-grade students during the 2018-19 school year will be returned at the end of the current school year. Incoming freshmen for the 2020-21 will be issued a new device when they start their new grade level.

The district said, “These two year old devices will be cleaned and updated, and will be provided to our elementary classrooms” and that “it is anticipated that this will provide approximately 1,200 devices to our elementary classrooms.”

In addition to the estimated $801,000 cost for the devices and carrying cases, PUSD recommends a $30,000 “white glove” preparation service, “where the vendor will receive and warehouse the Chromebooks in their facility over the summer, and will apply district-provided asset tags, enroll the devices into our Google domain and remove all packaging materials prior to delivery to our campuses.”

The devices would be delivered directly to the high school campuses on the day they are distributed to students, if the Board approves the purchase.

* The Board will receive “high-level information” regarding a request to re-evaluate the planned fourth- and fifth-grade school at the Donlon Elementary site. The so-called E-10 School Project — which would accommodate about 500 students, when completed — is currently in the planning and design phase, with staff gathering all necessary materials to submit to the Division of State Architects for approval.

Issues expected to be discussed as part of a larger presentation include TK-5 enrollment projections and school boundaries, school capacity and overflow, the impact of enrollment to other elementary sites, estimated project costs, and operational costs of the new school.

Depending on how the discussion unfolds, the board might give staff one of three possible directions including continuing with the project as planned, proceeding with planning and architectural services work “while developing a comprehensive analysis and alternative options to the E-10 School Project” for the Trustees to give a final determination, or to “stop/pause all planning and architectural services work and provide a comprehensive analysis and alternative options to the E-10 School Project” to the Board.

Construction on the new E-10 school is expected to start next summer, with the site opening in the summer of 2022.