While the teachers and administrators are remaining at home, the Manitowoc Public School District is continuing to teach the students over the internet. Superintendent Mark Holzman is continuing to talk with members of his staff about some of the challenges they are facing. He explained that the conversations he has are mainly about “employees, what the CARES Act means, what kind of board policies might we have to have in place, what the process will be for graduation, grading, and those kinds of pieces.”
Mark said it is hard to plan for an extended school closure like this, but he feels like the School District and staff have done a great job. “We have worked hard on what we are doing internally,” he explained. “We really only had two days to prepare for online learning….We were preparing for a week and a half. We were gonna go for three days when it first came out, then we had spring break last week, and then we came back for another week. Then we were thinking we will be back, but as we are learning about it, we were realizing we weren’t going to be back” so they had to reassess.
Holzman says the reason for the success is due to the ability of the teachers and other staff to work together. He says that teachers have been working together to “create some materials and support each other.” Holzman is thankful they have been able to give a Chromebook to every single student in the district from grades 1 through high school, as it has made virtual learning a lot easier. Holzman said that virtual learning is “not the same robust opportunity as it is in the face to face operations”, but he is asking families and students to do their best.
