GRANADA — Granada-Huntley-East Chain School will be unveiling plans for E-Learning days for the upcoming school year during an open house this Wednesday from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. at the school. E-Learning days are an opportunity for students to continue with regular school learning at home during weather related school closures.

This school year, the school will be fully 1:1 with Chrome book laptop devices in grades 4-12 and iPads in grades preK-3, which means there’s one device per student. The school has just over 300 students.

The school’s new K-12 principal, Taylor Topinka, said, “In the past we’ve been 1:1 with chrome books and iPads in grades K-12, but they haven’t been able to take them home at the end of the day. This year, we’re going to allow the students to bring them home at the end of the day,” Topinka said.

Topinka explained that the school’s new E-Learning day plan is the instigator for students being able to take home the devices.

The school board has been discussing E-Learning days for several months and the plan to start was approved last spring under former superintendent, Mandy Fletcher. Topinka shared that E-Learning days weren’t very common up until after last winter when there were so many school closures across the state due to winter weather.

“It’s a lot more common this year. Other schools are transitioning to this,” Topinka said.

While all students are 1:1 with devices, just the students in grades 6-12 will be expected to take home the devices because E-Learning days are only for grades 6-12 students. The younger students will just get a traditional snow day.

“The way our minutes system works, we already have enough time with the elementary students so they don’t technically need to make it up,” Topinka said.

Topinka explained that a school closure is usually called by 6 in the morning. Teachers then have until 10 in the morning to get whatever they have planned for the students posted digitally. The students then have the rest of the day to access and finish what their teachers would like them to do.

“Our big focus is not that it becomes some sort of alternate assignment or busy work, we’re really hoping that these days are a continuation of whatever learning was happening in the classroom and what would have happened if we had school that day,” Topinka said, adding. “We want students to continue learning seamlessly, digitally.”

Topinka explained that the state only allows five E-Learning days, so if there are seven days where school is cancelled due to weather, students would then get the two traditional no school snow days.

In the case that school is first declared two hours late and then cancelled, they wouldn’t be able to make it an E-Learning day because they wouldn’t have the amount of notice required by the state.

“Our technology department has five mobile hot spots, so of we have family without internet access, we can send these home with them so they have access to internet,” Topinka shared.

He explained that if they can tell there’s a snow storm expecting to come, the devices can be checked out in advance so they can be proactive about sending them home to families who will need them for E-Learning days.

“Another benefit is that they’ll have these devices to work on homework in a regular, non-E-Learning environment, too. They’ll have it to work on papers and research and do basic homework on as well,” Topinka said.

During the open house on Wednesday, The middle school staff will do some seminars and all students will have a chance to go over their schedules and meet with teachers.

There will be an information session at 6 and another at 7 in the gymnasium that will outline the specifics on the new initiatives. Topinka said they will go over basic responsibilities for the devices in preparation for the students taking them home. They’re also going to offer school insurance for the devices.