DETROIT – A virtual board meeting for Detroit Public Schools Community District held Tuesday night laid out a distance learning plan for students to finish the school year.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suspended in-person learning for the rest of the school year at K-12 schools across the state due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
To guarantee full state aid to the district needs to implement a distance learning plan and employees must be paid.
READ: Michigan K-12 schools closed for rest of school year -- what we know
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti started with a simplified grading system. There will be no report cards for the third and fourth quarters.
Before the schools were shut down, if students had a D minus or above they got a passing grade. If they get an F, they fail.
The next challenge addressed was how to teach online in a district where internet access isn’t an option for many families.
Teachers will start reaching out to students this week and hard copies of the academic packets will be distributed next week.
Leadership of the Detroit Federation of Teachers has made it clear to Vitti they’re not happy with the roll out of the plan. Tuesday was the first day of professional development.
Vitti acknowledged there will be growing pains but he said a survey of teachers showed 80 to 90 percent of overall feel they are prepared.
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