Volusia County Schools Hold First Virtual School Board Meeting Friday, March 27.

Written by Kristen Schmutz

Belden Communications News

Friday afternoon, Volusia County School Board Members held their first Virtual School Board meeting using the Teams software that will be implemented for the Virtual and Distance Learning that kicks off on Monday, March 30.

A lot of concern amongst the board members were focused on the distribution of materials for the Virtual and Distance Learning, Food Distribution, and Communication.

Communication between the School District to staff and families has been amped up amongst the COVID-19 situation, and they will continue with the distribution of daily emails of press releases, and information regarding important school information.

Food Distribution went well during the first week and will be continued until April 15. Bus drivers across the county have volunteered to assist School Way Café members in providing transportation for cafeteria workers to be able to deliver meals to certain hub stops throughout the county to allow food distribution to reach more children.

According to School Board Officials, they have 21 hub stops setup to begin as of Monday, March 30. More information will be provided on the hub stop locations over the weekend. It does take two days to gain approval from the Department of Agriculture, to be able to implement these stops, according to Superintendent Dr. Fritz. Once approval is gained, the district will update the hub stop list on their website.

Virtual and Distance Learning Materials went out Thursday and Friday, and the School Board is proud to announce that they have successfully provided 5,000 iPads to elementary students throughout the county. At this time, the district is working on reprogramming laptops to be provided to middle and high school students in need, and they will be available April 6-8.

For those with no connectivity to the internet at home, school board members have urged the use of paper packets that can be picked up at each school campus. Please call the office of each school if you have not received a paper packet and require one.

The district is working with the Florida Department of Education to readjust the budget from FY 2020 to accommodate for more technology to be purchased and distributed to those in need, in the event the district closes for the remainder of the year.

At this time school is scheduled to be back in session on each school campus as of April 15. This could change within the next few weeks. The Instructional Continuity Plan is currently set-up for a 10-day working period but can be adjusted if the need arises.

School Board Members want to remind the public that we are all in this together and that all information is posted to their website vcsedu.org, or for those with immediate questions or concerns you can call the School Board at (386) 734-7190.