Home-based learning will continue – your support is needed now more than ever
Boulder Valley School District announced on Monday that schools will remain closed for all in-school learning for the rest of this academic year and that Summer School will also be taught remotely. Education and teaching will still occur, but both teachers and students will be logging on from home. With this announcement that building doors will be closed for at least the next few months, we know that the needs in our community will continue to grow.
Our strong partnership with BVSD allowed us to mobilize immediately and ensure that all students have the necessary tools to continue their education from home. So far, we have:
Here’s a quick break down of the impact:
113,632 meals have been distributed to BVSD families since March 17th
2,000+ backpacks full of supplies and work packets distributed to students
$30,000 worth of grocery gift cards distributed to the most critically impacted BVSD families
1,000+ families did not have access to internet prior to Stay-at-Home orders, now EVERY student household in BVSD is connected to wifi
Several hundred masks have been collected from the community and distributed to BVSD essential workers
This work is only possible thanks to the hundreds of individual donors who contributed to our Critical Needs Fund.
In case you missed it, our Executive Director Allison Billings went live on Facebook to share an update on the swift and encompassing efforts by BVSD staff, supported by Impact on Education.
Please help us get the word out, please share on social – click here for easy facebook share.
While we are extremely proud that we’ve been able to provide so much support so quickly, we also know how much more work we have to do. The costs to continue providing food to support families in need this summer are significant, and the enrichment programs we know will be needed to help students catch up will be significant. We are so grateful for all who are joining us to make sure that these temporary school closures do not lead to permanent learning deficits.
Across our community and across the world, families and individuals are starting to settle into their new “routines.” Our new normal is staying at home and wearing masks and gloves during the essential times we need to leave the house. For some, we are working from make-shift offices in our homes, while others are trying to figure out how to pay rent as their employer has been forced to close, ending their job and source of income.
Students’ new normal is school at home. Assignments come from teacher emails, video chats or phone calls or arrive in a backpack either picked up by a family member or dropped off on a doorstep by a school community liaison. Some families are able to make this transition happen fairly well, while others struggle to juggle their own work-from-home schedule while now being a tutor/educator. And for some children, they do not even have the support of an adult in their home to ensure that their work is being completed and that they are connecting with their teachers.
Impact on Education is there for the students and teachers of Boulder Valley School District. We are driven to ensure that all students have the opportunities to receive a great education. We look for the barriers and work to break them down. Though we have been tackling obstacles and battling the achievement gap since our existence, we are in a crisis that exposes the barriers, but also sheds light on how amazing our partnership comes together to support ALL STUDENTS.
We continue to work with Boulder Valley School District as they adapt to educating children in these unprecedented times. We remain nimble to meet emerging needs and poised to take immediate action to ensure that the essential needs of students are met and that their education can proceed. We continue to listen to parents, families and our partners at BVSD.
In week two of home learning, we can already see the successes of our actions and the Critical Needs Fund:
We are proud to see that 96% of BVSD students connected with their teachers last week. The teachers and community liaisons have worked hard to make sure that students are not only accessing educational materials, but they are making connections again with their school and peers, they are being reminded that there are other adults in their lives that care about them.
To make this possible, we helped acquire and distribute:
Over 2,000 backpacks to students across the district filled with the basic tools – paper, pencils, crayons, calculators, work packets and notes from their school principals that they are loved. Watch the video of a distribution day here
Over $10,000 age appropriate books to families who do not have shelves of reading books to turn to during this time of confinement
Over 7,000 chromebooks with the help of district IT staff are working with families to properly set them up and get access to the internet.
And, so many of our children are still receiving nutritious meals from school – BVSD continues to be the one place that they can count on to have a full belly so that they could concentrate on their studies.
To make this possible, we have been able to utilize the Critical Needs Funds and leverage partnerships.
Just this week 20,224 meals have been distributed – bringing the total to 71,056 meals since March 17th
And, due to a partnership with BVSD Food Services and the nonprofit Conscious Alliance and their sponsor, Hormel, these families will all have a ham to prepare for Sunday’s Easter dinner.
And lastly, to make all the behind the scenes support happen, BVSD has hundreds of essential workers who we need to make sure are safe.
To make this possible we have:
Collected hundreds of hand-sewn and industrial masks from the community
These BVSD team members leave their homes every day to help make the emergency plans happen. They care for essential employees’ children, prepare and distribute food bags, they go to the homes of our most directly affected families to deliver food, gift cards for essentials and school supplies, they sit on the curbs of our school buildings to distribute laptops and backpacks, they clean all the school building to ensure they are ready for students to return, they receive donations and deliveries in the warehouse – they keep and promote the community of what is school!
We are grateful to be able to help the district tackle many of the challenges! A supportive community means the world to so many of our families:
We truly are #AllTogetherBVSD
UPDATE (4/20/2020): THANK YOU to a fantastic community – our mask needs have been fulfilled!) CURRENT NEED– FACE MASKS: BVSD is providing care to children of “Essential Employees.” We must help these teachers and children stay safe, so we’re asking for volunteers to donate face masks that we’ll distribute to students, teachers and other building personnel.
If you are a group or individual with a donation of 5 masks or more, please email us to schedule a pick up time.Bulk collections will continue through April 17th.
Addition Resources:
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Home Learning Kickoff Plan
Please click here to learn more about BVSD’s Materials and Food Distribution Plan
Please click here to learn more about Emergency Food Distribution
Please click here to learn about the Boulder Valley School District’s response
Please click here to learn more about resources in Boulder County
Please click here to learn about the State of Colorado public health and action plan
Read reporting on BVSD and IoE efforts to support students