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Decatur ISD announces grading policies during distance learningFree Access


Decatur ISD Thursday announced grading policies during distance learning and how it plans to handle final class ranks for this year’s seniors.

The district also will implement additional social distancing efforts with changes to curriculum delivery and reiterated its intent to hold a graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020.

Superintendent Joseph Coburn said the district will use a pass/fail model for grades 2 through 12 during distance learning. All students’ work earning a passing grade will receive a grade of 100. Assignments with a failing grade will receive the actual numerical grade, which Coburn said is required by law.

The grades for the fifth and sixth six weeks will be averaged with the fourth six weeks for a semester average. The fifth six weeks ends Friday, but teachers have been given the option to extend the grading period by a week as they and students adjust to distance learning.

“We’ll default all passing grades to 100 on report cards during the distance learning. We had some concerns from students with all A’s about getting a B during this unprecedented time,” Coburn said.

There will no change to grading procedure for pre-kindergarten through first grade as promotion is based on students demonstrating mastery of content.

Coburn will recommend at the April 20 school board meeting that the district cut off class ranks for the Class of 2020 at last semester and not count this semester’s grades in future class ranks for any high school level courses, including those of current eighth graders.

“We are recommending the valedictorian and salutatorian for this year’s class be based on rankings at the end of the fall semester, but that will have to go the board,” Coburn said. “It’s usually up until the fifth six weeks. But the fall semester is the last point where it is equitable. It wasn’t going to impact this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian, and we felt it was the right thing to do.”

Seniors will get a boost on their final transcript with recordings of 100 for passing grades in the final two six weeks.
School Board President Charlie Tibbels said he agreed with the recommendations from Coburn.

“It’s the fair thing to do to not count this particular grading period,” Tibbels said. “This semester is essentially pass/fail. It’s the right thing to do. For every student, learning is different, and it’s hard to judge the quality, which is different than being in the classroom.”

By Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order, classes on campuses are canceled until May 4. Decatur ISD, along with other districts in Wise County, have launched distance learning efforts, utilizing online lessons and paper packets. Decatur ISD hopes to reduce the number of paper packets due to concerns about the possible spread of COVID-19. The district is planning to provide iPads for kindergarten through second-grade students in the next week and is in the process of getting the tablets to third and fourth graders.

The district provided a list of locations in the community with parking lot WiFi availability (see list at bottom of page).

“We want to go more online. We are also working to keep our employees out of the building and changing our mobile food delivery,” Coburn said.

For any packets turned in, the district announced employees will be wearing gloves when handling them and will not handle the packets for 48 hours. Parents and students may also take pictures of the completed assignment to email to the teacher.

Coburn and Tibbels reiterated the district’s plans to hold a graduation ceremony for this year’s seniors. The ceremony is still scheduled for the afternoon of May 21 at the University of North Texas in Denton. The district is working on contigency plans for a ceremony in July, if the closures are extended. The district will survey seniors about dates.

“Graduation is still on schedule. UNT has not canceled our graduation, but it does seem likely,” Coburn said. “We want to make sure the community and seniors know we are looking at others dates and sites. We want to make sure the kids know we are going to have a graduation.”

Public WiFi locations
Most Decatur ISD campuses and several local churches are offering public Wi-Fi access from the parking lot. Users are asked to practice social distancing and stay in their vehicle.
Cornerstone Baptist — “CBC Public”; no password (except Sunday morning)
Crossroads Church — “Crossroads Guest”; no password
Decatur Church of Christ — “DISD Guests”; St@yHealthy&Safe (the parking lot at 51/Preskitt or lot closest to YAC)
First United Methodist Church — “methodiststudent”; no password
Grace Baptist (starting April 6) — “Grace Guest”; no password
Victory Church — “Victory Guest”; no password
DISD campuses (except Rann) also have Wi-Fi networks accessible from the parking lot. DHS is accessible from the lot outside the library.
(Network name: DISD-WIFI; password: decaturisd).

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