Salt Lake City School District votes to pushback school start date
Jul 30, 2020, 8:02 PM | Updated: Aug 11, 2020, 10:21 am
A meeting about changing school start times was held Thursday night at Northwest Middle School. Photo courtesy of Salt Lake City School District.
SALT LAKE CITY– The Salt Lake City School District (SLCSD) announced schools will start Sep. 8, 2020 in order to give teachers, students, and parents more time to prepare to begin the year learning remotely.
In an e-mail to parents and staff on Thursday, the district said an extra two weeks would allow for electronic devices to be delivered to students, teacher-student interaction, and training on online learning platforms.
The district said it has nearly 1,300 laptops for students to check out to students and 2,000 more on the way.
Additionally, SLCSD said moving the start date from Aug. 25 to Sep. 8 give educators time to gauge where students are academically. Teachers will have the chance to meet with students and their families to become more comfortable in front of the camera.
“Remote learning will go a lot more smoothly if students and teachers can first establish a personal connection. Then, when remote learning begins, students will already be familiar with the teacher speaking to them online,” explained the district.
A detailed review of SLCSD’s 2020-21 Restart Plan is available here.
