Although the improved virtual platforms developed by employees of Ohio County Schools have proved operational for most, complaints have been received concerning connection and functionality during the first seven weeks of the academic year.
According to Superintendent Dr. Kim Miller, approximately 30 percent of students in the school district have been learning online since the beginning of the academic year on Sept. 8, and that number increased this week with the closure of Wheeling Park High School through Friday.
“Pat Riddle is our technology director, and he works closely with Seth Bell, and those two work with the administrators and teachers at each of our schools,” she explained. “Those two also work with the devices to be sure that those electronic tablets are working well. When they get a message from a teacher or from a student about those devices and the platforms, they get those repaired and back to our students as quickly as possible.”
“We are still working on making sure that all of our students that do not have broadband at home have access to their schoolwork with the hot spots,” Miller said. “I know that has been an issue for some of those students and their parents, but we’ve made a lot of progress with those locations that are in the community and also at all our schools.”
Parents and Their Principals
At the time W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice closed all public, Catholic, and private schools in the Mountain State, the Ohio County Schools system was operating online with far less capability from what is available now. In the spring, the system allowed for information to be distributed only electronically, but it did not permit students-to-teacher interaction as it does now.
When the new system refuses to cooperate, Jones advised contacting the respective school principal to explain the issues.
“Each school has a tech team now, and those individuals work on the daily issues that are encountered in those schools,” he explained. “This is a first for all of us, and I know we ask for patience often, but we are working through those issues so our students can get the education they deserve.
“We knew we would encounter some problems since this is all brand new to all of us, but there hasn’t been as much as what we anticipated,” Jones admitted. “So, overall, we’re happy, but that doesn’t mean our parents should not let us know when those issues arise. They need to contact their principals or teachers and work with them so their can children continue. It’s the people at the schools who can fix those problems.”
Not only are glitches resolved, the assistant superintendent said, but also improvements are made by teachers and tech team members to continue the evolution for future use.
“We work with the operation of the new virtual platform, and that’s why we go visit our schools each week so we are aware of the problems and of the solutions,” Jones said. “Our team also has been working on the platforms in order to improve them along the way, too, and that’s because we know that once this pandemic goes away, the virtual platforms will continue to be used on snow days and during the summer months.
“What we do is rotate the schools that we visit each Wednesday so everyone can work on those improvements for the next week,” he said. “We do that on Wednesdays because that’s the day that all of our students are learning from home because it allows us to meet with the teachers about how they are going about developing the online education they are receiving right now.”
Quarantined at Home
Approximately 50 Wheeling Park High students and 10 staff members will remain quarantined until next week, and the educators would be replaced by substitutes if the high school is able to reopen to four days of in-person instruction and one day of remote learning.
This is not the first occasion when faculty, staff, and students have been impacted by COVID-19 with the initial incident taking place during athletic conditioning at Wheeling Island Stadium.
“We did think that we would have positive cases, and we were very realistic about the chances that we would have to close schools during this first semester. The first one was West Liberty Elementary last week, but those students are back in their classrooms,” Jones said. “We do hope our high school students only will be away from Wheeling Park for just these days, but that will be determined later this week when we work with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department.
“Now, with the temperatures cooling off, we know it may get worse, so that’s why our plan is to close individual schools and not the entire county. That is why those online platforms are so important right now,” he said. “The school buildings may be closed for cleaning and so forth, but the kids can continue learning and moving forward.”
