By TR Robinson
Principal Philip Lutgen and his staff of 12 certified instructors and 4 additional support staff are set to begin a Distance Learning Schedule with a curriculum of History, ELA, Math, Science and Electives beginning on August 17th at North County Trade Tech High School in Vista. The innovative independent charter high school is located at 1132 N. Melrose Drive and is known for small, personalized instruction.
Their creative online learning schedule will feature a weekly schedule of Monday as a Prep and Support Day for all students, followed by Tuesday thru Friday as Teaching and Support Days. Seniors and Freshmen will have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 am to 12:55 pm; Juniors and Sophomores will have classes on Wednesday and Friday from 8 am to 12:55 pm. Teachers will have a one hour staff meeting, beginning at 7:45 am, to go over issues and concerns they are having with their online classes. Each class is roughly 45 minutes long.
A typical daily online schedule for the students would begin with History, followed by ELA (English language), then Math, Science and ending with Electives (this varies from student to student). Also figured into the schedule are IEP meetings, determined by individual student needs and assessments.
Principal Lutgen also said they have built into the schedule an Open Internet Lab from Mondays through Friday, using the school’s cafeteria space to set up computers as an Internet Café for any students who have computer issues at home and need to use the school’s internet to work on assignments. The Internet Lab is by appointment only, open from 9 am to 2 pm and students will be socially distanced. Students would have their temperatures taken, must respond to a COVID questionnaire and be masked before allowed to report to the Computer Lab. Trade Tech students are issued computers to use at their homes.
On Teaching and Support Days, all instructors and other school personnel would have their temperatures taken, must be masked and respond to the COVID questionnaire before allowed to report to their designated areas or classrooms. Principal Lutgen said all classrooms have had web cams installed to assist teachers along with their online instructions. He also said learning packets for each week’s material for each subject would be available to be picked up by students on Fridays if they need further assistance in a particular class for that week.
Lutgen indicated that when they went to the online learning for the school year, just ending, they found that 70-80% of the students participated and they used the learning packets to assist other students at that time. He expects the number of students working online will be much higher this year as all students have been informed about the new Distance Learning Schedule curriculum and policies. For the teachers, the online learning class size will be capped at 20 students or less per class.
Other things assisting the teachers at Trade Tech include teachers being able to bring their own children, up to middle school aged, to their classes if a teacher’s students are still at home due to COVID educational policies. The Trade Tech teachers must use their classrooms for the online learning. Any teacher not willing to do this was offered a year off, unpaid, being able to return when they felt safe (such as a vaccine established).
When asked about the possibility of an instructor becoming infected, Principal Lutgen said they would be allowed to teach from home during the time they were quarantined. He indicated if 3 of their 12 certificated staff came down with COVID, this would be the point they would discontinue the online program on campus. He also indicated there would be a socially distanced mandatory staff meeting from 3:15 to 4 pm on Monday. The staff lounge would be sanitized twice each day and the teacher’s classroom sanitized every day at night. The teacher of each class would be the only person using their individual classroom.
To start this year of Distance Learning bike repair, auto repair and small engine repair would not be offered, due to the nature of what is needed to properly instruct this type of class. Four additional sections of mill work have been added to the curriculum as well as additional lath construction. Principal Lutgen said all of this is very fluid at this time as changes will be made as needed. For example, he indicated that the current schedule they will begin the school year with is the result of 12 or 13 revisions. He said once parents can see that learning outside of a regular school program is possible, especially for high schoolers, they will appreciate what has gone into developing this program. The important thing is to also teach students and kids how to be safe in this world. This hybrid blended learning program is one approach to making an abbreviated school year work. Flexibility is the key to making this work.
The hope is for California to reach a point where it is safe for kids to reopen schools, no matter what the look of the school or program may look like. His belief they may reach a point where in Phase 1 kids could be physically on campus for one day a week, increasing to 2 days a week if safety is maintained. The Trade Tech Distance Learning Schedule will run from August 17 to October 9. After this first quarter, an evaluation would be made as to what the 2nd quarter, beginning October 12, would look like. Lutgen said all educators “need to make learning better for kids”. He said they spend every penny they get on programs, equipment and machinery to make the classes they offer the best they can be.
Principal Lutgen indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought out a new way we must look at many parts of our society. He felt for teachers, schools are about establishing a culture and for students, teachers are about relationships. Students not being in schools, with their teachers, hurts both the development of this culture and the establishment of meaningful relationships. He said establishing the culture and assisting developing the relationships is what drives him.
As many schools around the county begin to offer a variety of online learning programs, Trade Tech’s approach will certainly be one that many school districts may look at to see if such a schedule might work for them. For more information about Trade Tech go to www.tradetechhigh.org.
