Next week will start a new kind of education for the Greene County School District.

Superintendent Tim Christensen says due to Governor Kim Reynolds requesting all schools to remain closed through the end of April, and guidance from the Iowa Department of Education, all grade levels will be offered “Voluntary Educational Enrichment Opportunities.” Christensen explains VEEO does not require students to do school work for grades and no tests will be given. He describes why the district chose VEEO instead of requiring students to do school work.

“That opens a whole can of worms because there is equity issues involved. With the required, that we need to provide equal access to everybody and we all know that not students has internet access, we’ve got students that are ELL (English Language Learners), we’ve got students in special ed(ucation), we’ve got students with 504s (medical diagnosis), so again it’s extremely challenging.”

Christensen notes 1st-12th graders will have opportunities to pick up Google Chromebooks. However, he adds, the district does not have enough Chromebooks for all grade levels and so the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students will only be offered paper packets. Additionally, paper packets will also be made available to any student that requests them. Christensen talks about the challenges that teachers are also facing.

“There’s not a teacher in Greene County, there’s not a teacher in America that doesn’t want the very best for their students. The sad thing, under this environment (with COVID-19) and this structure, they can’t provide everything that students need.”

Christensen says they will begin offering VEEO April 13th and will continue with the assumption that school will be back open on May 1st. To hear more from Christensen about VEEO and other ways COVID-19 is impacting education, listen to today’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.