La Cañada Unified campuses silent as students, teachers begin ‘distance learning’
The typical start of the La Cañada High School day is a study in managed chaos, with chatty students rushing to first-period classes and parents extricating themselves from carlines as morning bells sound out sonorous warnings.
But on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., you could have heard a pin drop as hundreds of high schoolers woke up and logged on to computers at home for their first day of distance learning — a new reality for La Cañada students for the foreseeable future.
After La Cañada Unified School officials announced in a March 12 emergency board meeting physical campuses would close Friday as a preventive measure against a rapidly spreading novel coronavirus, instructors immediately got to work.
“Our teachers are rock stars,†said LCHS 7/8 Principal Dr. Jarrett Gold. “They’ve done a lot of work just in the past two or three days to be prepared for this.â€
Distance learning began Tuesday across all La Cañada campuses and is expected to continue through March 27, at which time school board members will consider extending the closure period. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday closures could continue through the remainder of the school year.
Armed with lesson plans and schedules that include video staff meetings, online office hours and even social media activities designed to keep homebound kids engaged in learning, LCUSD teachers have crossed the digital divide.
Grades will not be recorded during distance learning, and it’s uncertain whether students will have to make up for lost instructional days later in the year. Gold said teachers are communicating their expectations of students throughout the transition.
“They’re encouraging students to do the work, and they’re giving feedback on the work,†Gold said. “Kids need consistency and structure, and our teachers are trying to provide that as best they can.â€
LCUSD’s tech team didn’t wait for coronavirus counts to begin in Los Angeles County when they started imagining what it would take to rebuild brick-and-mortar classrooms into virtual learning environments.
They considered the district’s technology infrastructure — which has grown by leaps and bounds in the past five years — and began planning how students and teachers might seamlessly continue the learning process from their own homes.
“We’ve been preparing for this for four of five years, and this is our test,†Lewsadder said. “It felt like game day on Friday.â€
While teachers and students work from home, empty school grounds are being cleaned by custodial crews working diligently to ensure campuses are clean whenever students and staff return.
A three-man team at Palm Crest Elementary School Tuesday disinfected surfaces in a second-grade classroom.
Lead custodian Abel Torres described the painstaking process of removing thousands of invisible fingerprints from desks, chairs, markers and books.
“We’re hitting all the high points and areas where there’s a lot of traffic and where people touch everything,†said Torres. “It’s time consuming, but we have to do what we can do. I’ve been here for 34 years — this is like my second home.â€
Principal Cory Pak estimated about 35 classrooms will undergo a deep cleaning before being closed for the duration of the school’s closure.
“We don’t want to undo what’s being done,†Pak said.
La Cañada Unified Governing Board members will call another emergency meeting next week to assess the situation and make any new announcements related to the coronavirus pandemic and local school closures.
