My daughter started her KG year in the pandemic though it was August of 2020 I was taking no chances until I saw the data available at DCPS website. As a single mom and my only child I wanted to keep her safe especially during this first 9 weeks trial run.
Online DuvalHome Room
Pros:
*The teachers were great!
* meal drop offs at nearby locations (while that lasted) helped a lot.
* The classes were engaging and fun
*with about 35 kids to each teacher it made it to were kids got their turn
CONS:
* Teachers with little to no training on the system or how to teach online. Not their fault, these are in class teachers. GPE should have better trained them.
* other than her HomeRoom (main) teacher, most failed to grasp how to worn the system. This led to frustrated kids, teachers and parents.
* YES HOMEWORK TOO!!
* After spending the WHOLE day, yes it ran the same time as in school, parents were then responsible to scan and upload to a system all the work they'd done that day, OR suffer penalty grading for each day late. After school, by the time I cooked dinner, got my little bit of non-teacher Mom family time, bath time, and bedtime, I had to spend close to 2-3 hours EVERY NIGHT uploading before midnight! Try teaching the next day with a few hours of sleep, non functional IT issues on GPE side, running a household, homework, and everything else and getting to bed around 1:30am to wake at 6am.
* Cons was told I would get a laptop, never happened.
* Cons the bus trips for lunches stopped and even if our lunch break wasn't scheduled we had scheduled times to pick up the food, so spend the extra money in groceries or miss class?
NOW FOR THE BRICK AND MORTAR 2nd 9 weeks (AKA my daughter wanted to go to an actual school, make friends and have the experience)
Pros:
* They did their best they could with what the county provided for COVID-19 protection including scanning temps prior to entering
CONS:
* I watched a child struggling with her book bag, Abigail I think her name was at pick up. She was sad, and trying her best to get to her car. The male coach (great guy forgot name) saw what happened next, the woman in charge of the front calling kids out to their cars had yelled at her twice and then went up and SHOVED her in the back from behind!
*The kids wait in a big room with little adult supervision and hall monitor like kids mainly watching them. A girl who has problems was slamming her chair down over and over. She was yelled at, bawled up her jacket, and punched my daughter with it in her stomach. Not hard enough to bruise, but still! Then she ran out and instead of an ADULT going after her, she sent a 5th grade boy monitor to go out and tackle her down. What has happened to this school I USED to hear great things about?!
* My daughter was bullied. My her teacher Ms. Bahen, who has a reputation for failing KG with her "I will tell you the instructions ONCE. If you didn't listen (how about understand?) I will not help you. If you fail you fail."
* I had multiple parents confirm that my daughter was being called a "Big Baby" by the teacher.
* My daughter has test anxiety, and to "help" her with this she made her in front of the whole class move her desk to face hers and would stare at her the whole time, and punish her with no playing at recess for disturbing the class.
*Also punished for asking questions for help to both the teacher, and then a student because she wanted to LEARN!
* Ms. Bahen REFUSED parent/teacher conferences with me, stating I can't enter the school due to COVID-19
* Ms. Bahen refused to do a zoom or call parent/teacher conference because the school hadn't provided her with the devices to do so, and she refused to use her own.
* My daughter went from A's and B's to failing everything or Needs Improvement.
* Everyday she was singled out by the teacher, and most days lost ability to play during recess because of "talking" which is "don't ask for help after I told the class the instructions once" and then asking for help from a classmate.
* When I contacted the school about this, they seemed as if they know she teaches "in a strict fashion". Bullying a KG? Calling her names? Refusing to help students? A reputation for failing KG students?! This is not a strict fashion. When asked if I could have her class switched I was told that would probably not ever happen.
* I left a voicemail and I believe an email with the principal. By the time I got a response, I had already gotten her a full a scholarship through Step Up For Students, but went with K-12 Digital Academy of Florida a charter FREE school that's been doing online education for decades. Needless to say I didn't bother to return the principals call, since she took that long to return mine.
TAKE YOUR CHILD ANYWHERE BUT HERE! If you get Ms. Bahen, transfer immediately! If I could give NEGATIVE stars I give them a -5 read more