West Contra Costa Unified Grapples with Remote Lesson Plans for School Shutdowns

Updated March 15. This story contains a correction.

Starting Monday, March 16, all West Contra Costa Unified schools are asking teachers to voluntarily move to digital learning platforms for second through 12th grades in its first large-scale experiment in remote teaching and learning.

The decision to close all WCC Unified district schools for the next three weeks is one many other Bay Area districts have also made to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The move to tackle remote learning is one that West Contra Costa district officials have been anticipating.

"No district is 100% ready for this, but fortunately we are ahead of the game, we were preparing," said Demetrio Gonzalez, president of the United Teachers of Richmond, the teachers union.

On Friday, students took home Chromebook laptops, while staff took part in a video training on how to manage attendance and assignments through digital platforms, said Gonzalez.

"It's difficult, but we know we can get through it," he said. "And most important, our students are still going to be served and our teachers still supported during this time."

Initially district officials and union leaders agreed teachers would adopt a modified teaching schedule, providing a 50-minute lesson plan to students, making assignments, and verifying that students had completed those assignments, said Gonzalez.

But that plan changed by Friday evening: The district now encourages families and staff to engage with students in remote learning, uploading a structured plan for teachers to use, but calls the effort voluntary.

Superintendent Matthew Duffy posted a message over the weekend, saying, "Because we cannot ensure access to every student in our district, we will not mandate the distance learning as a required instructional program for the next two weeks."

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday told schools they would not lose state funding when they close, and he directed schools to use the funds for "distance learning and high quality educational opportunities," along with providing meals and arranging supervision for children during school hours.

Jennifer Walden, an English teacher at Pinole Valley High School, said she sent her students home Friday with a book about inventions called "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson. She plans to send her students questions and assign reading logs next week.

"A lot of reading assignments in English are writing and submitted online anyway," Walden said. "But I don’t know what the science teachers are going to do.”

Walden said the big question is whether teachers will try and teach in real time on platforms like Google Meet, which she said Pinole Valley High's Spanish teachers were experimenting with.

Other school districts, like Burlingame School District, have been planning for closure by identifying special education students who may need special assistance, developing translated messages for families of English learners and considering ways to support parents of younger children with child care options.

Math educators at San Francisco Unified School District are sharing elementary school lessons they've created for use during the school closures.

At Summit Tamalpais charter school in Richmond, which has not yet announced closure, ninth grader Amya Contarero said she didn't like the idea of video classes.

"My house is too noisy," said Contarero, who shares a one-bedroom home with her parents and four siblings, including two toddlers.

For the lower grades in Gonzalez's district, teachers prepared paper packets to send home Friday, something Gonzalez said was too difficult to scale for the higher grade levels.

Gonzalez said the lack of testing for the coronavirus, an issue that has caused concern across the country, pushed teachers to call for the closures.

"Even people we knew were potentially exposed couldn't get tested," he said. "We knew teachers were being exposed and could spread it."

A concern for all districts that are closing is how to continue providing free breakfasts and lunches for the students who rely on school meals: In West Contra Costa, lunches can be picked up at nine different school sites everyday between 11 am and 1 pm. Many other districts across the Bay Area are setting up similar meal pick-up plans for families with children under 18.

In San Francisco Unified, the district has put together emergency childcare options for parents who are "on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak and low-income families." Those sites will be run by the city's Recreation and Parks Department and the San Francisco Public Library.

This story was updated to include information made available after the time of publication. West Contra Costa Unified Schools said they were no longer requiring that teachers teach remotely, but were encouraging it when possible.