SCTA Proposal to Bridge Students’ Digital Divide and Start Teacher-Driven Distance Learning April 13

Today, we made a comprehensive proposal to the District to bridge the Digital Divide for students and to put a process in place to officially begin a Distance Learning program on April 13. You can view our proposal here.

It’s no secret that we have been frustrated by the absence of Superintendent Aguilar in our discussions, particularly when we know that superintendents at surrounding districts have been directly involved in discussion with their unions.

Despite the growing frustration with the Superintendent, we continue to believe that we need to put the interest of our students first and strongly advocate for those who want to perform the essential job they were hired to do: teach.

Toward that end, the proposal we made is comprehensive, and we believe, visionary and earlier today we held a telephone press conference to educate the community about our proposal (which you can view here). You can read David’s introduction to the press conference here.

It’s useful to think of this proposal in Three Stages:

Stage 1: Distribution of Technology and Professional Development and Preparation for Staff
Stage 2: Distribution of Technology and Orientation for Students and Parents. This would include a District-provided Chromebook with internet access for every Sac City student who needs it using $1.8 million in savings achieved from teachers’ health plans.
Stage 3: Commencement of Distance Learning based on teacher judment of student needs and available resources, starting on April 13, “to the extent feasible.”

Similtaneously, we working with Barry Broome of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, a leading regional business group, and Fabrizio Sasso of the Sacramento Central Labor Council as we try to find a way for the District to purchase thousand of Chromebooks at wholesale prices. We’re also working with them to help make arrangements with internet service providers like Comcast for students and possibly staff to receive free WiFi for the duration of Distance Learning from April 13 to June 12, assuming that schools stay closed for the remainder of the year.