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Athens City Schools Prepare to Go Live with Online Instruction
By: Claudia Cisneros
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The Athens City Schools District (ACSD) said preparations continue to begin with online classes instruction for all K-12 students in the district.
Schools remain closed as a precautionary measure to the coronavirus emergency. The challenge is in making sure every student has access to internet and a computer device before online instruction begins.
“To date, we have distributed over 1800 Chromebooks to students. We have nearly 250 students who still need Chromebooks and internet access,” Superintendent Tom Gibbs said in a communication to parents over the weekend.
The computers that students use during normal school session are Chromebooks, an economic version of a laptop. They were disinfected and sanitized before ACSD began their distribution.
Thanks to a survey sent out to parents two weeks ago, ACSD was able to determine that at least 16% of students did not have home internet.
To address this digital gap, Gibbs announced internet hotspots had been ordered to be delivered to those homes.
“Hotspot devices for internet connectivity are expected to arrive by Wednesday (April 1st), at which time we will immediately begin configuring and delivering devices,” Gibbs said.
ACSD has also been delivering meals to students in their homes using the school bus system. Up until this weekend the District had provided over 5000 meals, according to Gibbs.
The date for resuming classes is still not confirmed, but Gibbs hopes that with the digital divide closer to closed all students will be equally ready to begin online classes next Monday.
“Realistically, given the delivery of hotspots and Chromebooks and getting all of our students access to our online platforms, it is likely we will not officially begin online instruction until Monday, April 6th.”
ACSD provided the following resources for parents:
For tech questions related to the Chromebook device itself, please contact the ACSD’s technology department at acs.techhelp@athenscsd.org or call 740-797-4544 x 1229.
For questions about creating or accessing the parent or student portal for Infinite Campus, email campus@athenscsd.org.