In what is certainly one of the most popular segments of our digital transition events, we bring a local panel of administrators together for a wide-ranging, no-holds-barred discussion about the hottest issues in education. Invariably, our local panel is made up of some of the top minds in education. This panel is no exception, and includes Dr. Mark Benigni, Superintendent of Meriden Public Schools, Khechara Bradford, Deputy Superintendent of Learning at Providence Public School District, and Dr. Patrick McGee, Superintendent at the Woonsocket Education Department.
Dr. McGee explains one of his district’s biggest challenges, “Some of the challenges that we've faced are probably the same challenges that most districts across the country are facing, and that's student engagement and student attendance. We've had the fortune, however, of having support staff at each of our schools and at the district level, whether they be attendance, officers, guidance, counselors, social workers or school psychologists, they've been working hard to try to reach out and communicate with those students in those families who do not attend as often as we would hope that they do. But that really has been our biggest challenge. Some positives have come from this as well. We've provided one-to-one for all of our students in our district. Our goal was to provide our students across the district in grades pre-K through 12 with the device prior to the pandemic and the pandemic kind of sped that process up” On the plus side, “We've done a great job of providing professional development to our teachers and our staff around virtual and hybrid learning. We've worked very hard there and we've also worked very hard reaching out to our families and providing support to our families around navigating through Google Classroom and navigating through the various platforms that we're using in the district. So very, very proud of that work, which will certainly continue as we, you know, prepare for next year. Um, but we're in the process now of, of really, you know, looking to obviously, you know, get through this year. Our hope is to bring all our students back soon as most of our teachers and staff are vaccinated.”
