The Greenville Public School District board of trustees held a special called meeting Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after Governor Tate Reeve’s announced all Mississippi schools will be closed for the remainder of the semester.
“That does not mean school is cancelled,” Reeves said in his announcement. “Distance learning will continue and I will be asking every school to submit plans to show that they are doing just that and to step up and share the best practices that we have learned over the past several weeks.”
GPSD Superintendent Dr. Debra Dace discussed with the board of trustees distance learning tools already in place for students as well as promotion and retention guidelines for students.
Those COVID-19 Promotion/Retention guidelines state:
For grades 1-8:
* Promotion decisions will be made on the basis of passing grade in English/Language Arts and Mathematics only;
* No state testing is required for promotion into 4th grade; and
* For specific 7th and 8th grade courses, the Core Curriculum, which includes state and district objectives, requires a final grade of 60 in each subject before Carnegie units will be awarded.
For grades 9-12:
* Promotion obtained by satisfactorily earning Carnegie units. The Core Curriculum, which includes state and district objectives, require a final grade of 60 in each subject before Carnegie units will be awarded; and
* Dual Enrollment Courses must meet the specific IHL requirements.
Students will receive the average of terms 1, 2, and 3 as their term 4 grade and are to complete and submit at home learning activities.
If a student submits less or fewer than 50% of assignments, five points will be added to their term 4 average. If more than 50% of assignments are submitted, 10 points will be added to term 4 average.
Dace highlighted that students can’t “just be promoted” and must pass their courses in order to receive their Carnegie units.
“They have to pass all of their Carnegie units but they also have the five points or 10 points they do in additional work. They get a good opportunity to pass with that additional work,” Dace said to the board.
According to district policy, pre-k and kindergarten students do not retain and the only amendment to district policy that needs to be made is not requiring state testing for graduation.
She said for GPSD’s high school students, assignments are being rendered using Google Classroom and virtual conferences with seniors have taken place via Zoom.
Trustee Jan Vaughn asked how long it would be after a student has sent in all of his or her requirements before he or she is notified of promotion with the cutoff date for submissions being May 15.
Dace said school ends May 20 and grades should be in by that date.
“We’ve mailed report cards for the third nine weeks and we’ll mail report cards again for the fourth nine weeks,” she said.
Board of trustees president Doris Thompson inquired as to whether there was a plan being considered for graduating seniors in lieu of the traditional commencement ceremony.
“That’s something they’ve looked forward to for 12 years, so I wanted to know if we’re doing anything to address that,” Thompson said.
Dace said she and her staff have been discussing some options as alternatives to the customary commencement festivities.
Trustee Emmanuel Edmond asked, “Is there anything that would preclude us from coming back after all of this is over and holding an actual ceremony?”
Dace said other than people being around, there would not be.
“If it’s July or August, it doesn’t matter, the district can still basically have a ceremony. Myself, Mr. (Everett) Chinn (public relations director for GPSD), and the high school principals, are going to look at some alternatives during a meeting Thursday,” she said.
On par with Reeves assertion, board president Doris Thomas said, “I know that our education community will do whatever it takes to make sure Mississippi kids won’t fall behind.
“This is new for all of us, we have to do a lot of trying to figure it out. This is new and we want to try and do the right thing for the children as well as the parents and everybody involved. We’re just going to continue to try to work through the process.”
