 
 
 
 
hello everyone and welcome to this
special parent connection workshop
about the fall 2020 plan before we begin
i'd like to remind you that this is a
30-minute workshop
the beginning of the workshop will be
about 10 minutes of information based
upon questions that the community has
been
asking about this specific topic then
there will be about 20 minutes
designated to a question and answer
period
if you have any questions for the
panelists please use the question and
answer or the q
a tab on your screen please keep in mind
that we
may have uh we may not have time to
answer all your questions but
we will work hard to get as many
questions as possible and remember to
visit our faqs
on bbschools.com my name is dr admin
alexander the director of the office of
family and community engagement
i'm extremely excited to have our
panelists today
mr matt delaney the executive director
of secondary
teaching and learning dr sarah lockett
director of technical and career
education
mr david swanger the director of
technical and career education center
and mr mike taylor director of vance
technology center
they are here in joining us today to
talk about the technical and career
centers
thank you everybody for joining we hope
that this information answers questions
that you may have
and provide you with additional
resources to help you during this time
and with that being said i'm going to
turn it over to mr delaney thank you mr
delaney
thank you dr alexander i appreciate it
and welcome to all of you that are
joining us this evening to
talk about our technical career centers
i'm proud to be here with dr lockett and
mr taylor and mr swanger we know this is
a very
um anxious time for our families and our
students who
are committed to these fabulous programs
we have at the
advanced technology center and at the
technical and career education center
and you're looking forward to making a
very difficult decision and hoping you
can receive
some information around what that will
look like for your students at those
centers
prior to getting into answering some of
those questions i just want to
go back and share a little bit of some
of the things that we want to make sure
you're aware of obviously
uh you are looking to make a decision on
whether or not you want to choose option
one
which is face-to-face learning when when
social distancing and safety measures
are in place
or and as you know we're starting the
year temporarily in a
virtual learning environment or option
two which is 100
virtual learning and certainly you're
wondering probably if i choose option
two what does that mean
for us at the centers and those are
conversations that dr lockett and mr
taylor mr swanger hope to answer
for you tonight but we have a
significant commitment
to ensuring that students receive the
best instruction in these two programs
that they can provide we know the value
of these programs from a
graduate profile standpoint as well as
from an industry certification
standpoint we also know from a dual
enrollment standpoint so there's several
of those areas that we
know impact your decision making around
these two options
you're also we just want to make sure
we're clear around what is going to be
the difference between
the emergency learning plan in the
spring
and where we're moving into the fall
2020 instruction
you know as as the term emergency says
we were in a state of emergency we're in
a period of unknown we were
asked to leave buildings one day and we
did not come back until hopefully
sometime soon and in those situations we
were responding as as best as we could
we've had some opportunities now to plan
we're still working hard in that
planning standpoint we are still dealing
with a lot of the unknowns but we look
to add a more rigorous
curriculum instruction assessment look
to
see how we can remediate and accelerate
students in their programs
as well as one of the biggest components
is provide synchronous live instruction
for those students in a virtual world
students are going to be graded they're
going to receive feedback and their
attendance is going to be monitored
the biggest challenge we have with the
centers is what is synchronous live
instruction look like
in these unique hands-on programs and
i'm going to turn it over to dr lockett
now and allow her
and we'll begin to take questions from
mr taylor and mr swanger
dr lockett thank you mr delaney
um i i want to start out by by just
talking about career and technical
electives across the board i've seen a
lot of questions from families
about what options will my my student
have in the fall
and i really want to assure our school
community that there is going to be a
full range of career and technical
electives whether that is for your
middle school
student at their home school your high
school student at their home school
a student that chooses option two in the
virtual learning center
or a student who is attending one of our
current technical centers whether it's
the tech center or the atc
so we really appreciate you all coming
out to hear about these options site and
i know there
are a lot of questions our staff has
been hard at work
planning new projects and opportunities
that will address some of those concerns
with hands-on learning um and and we
really hope to share a little bit more
about that
uh with you tonight but i'd like to jump
right in um and and one of the first
questions i
i think i heard you mention mr delaney
is a parent that wants to know my child
was accepted
in to a program at the tech center will
he or she still be able to access that
program and mr swanger you want to take
that question
absolutely thank you dr lockett and
thank you parents and students for
joining
and the answer to that question is
absolutely our programs will be offered
as students
now dr swanger is a follow-up to this
and i know this is a concern that you
and mr taylor
have shared often with leadership and
others what
what about hands-on instruction which is
so important for learning a trade
and being marketable to a potential
first-time employer what will that look
like
in your opinion how will we provide that
opportunity of the hands-on instruction
well you know that's that's a great
question uh mr delaney and uh
the majority of our programs uh lend
themselves to the need of
that practical or hands-on piece and due
to the
nature of our tools specialized tools
and equipment and materials
and the processes involved hands-on
practice is going to be needed
for the majority of our tech center
programs
and just to kind of circle back real
quick with our advanced technology
center students because i know
the parents there wondering as well mr
taylor can you
share what those programs will look like
at the atc this fall
mr taylor you're muted
yes thank you sarah like
the home high schools the tech center in
the atc
will offer a full slate of programs
students
accepted or returning to the atc should
plan to take those advanced technical
courses
and may select option one or option two
dr lockett a question i've seen pop up
several times just as i'm reviewing some
of the
q a is if you can maybe discuss a little
bit the 4x4 schedules impact on both
atc or the tce
sure um for our electives at the high
school
and the middle school the home schools
um students will be
receiving daily instruction um without
that more condensed time frame
um that is the hallmark of the 4x4 for
our career and technical centers
students are already double blocked and
coming
every day um so they won't see any
change in their schedule
um as far as the number of meetings and
the fact that they come every day
mr swanger mr taylor is there anything
you'd like to add to that
no the only difference they might see is
grading more often
than they would normally see it in the
uh
in the past because of the four by four
and the increased uh
number of grading periods
again our students will our our courses
will remain year long and
students will be assessed all year long
and they'll receive their credits at the
conclusion of the school year for our
programs
so dr locke if i could just provide a
little additional clarity to the 4x4
schedule just for
the families that may be listening
traditionally we are on an a b
block schedule which means typically a
student would take anywhere from
six to eight classes three to four one
day three to four the next day
when i say one day would be an a day and
the other day would be a b
day on the four 4x4 schedule it was
it brought into the secondary level this
year for a couple of reasons one
was safety and health mitigation factors
one of the things that dr spence has
shared
with the advice from our medical
professionals is try to reduce the
amount of interaction
students are having essentially saying
cohort students
well that's very difficult to do on the
secondary level so one of the things you
can try to do is minimize the number of
classes they're transitioning to
each day and the 4x4 allows that to
happen where a student
will be taking anywhere from three to
four classes per day
every day now to mr taylor and mr
swanger and what dr lockett said
essentially
the account the centers have been
operating as a 4x4 schedule all the time
because students come every day
and they're double blocked and that will
not change so
the the level of how they are received
or attend
the the centers is not any different
it's only going to be different for the
students when they attend their core
classes at their home school which again
would be
anywhere you know typically one or two
classes every day
thank you mr delaney you know one of the
questions i'd like to circle back to
um was around you know what does that
instruction look like
there's a lot of hands-on um activities
both at our
at their home schools and our current
technical electives but even more so
when we talk about the advanced
technology center and the tech center
and some of those circle around
uh advanced uh computer software
programs that students are using
and um they will be you know still
working from their chromebooks and
without access to the labs we're getting
a lot of questions from parents about
how that will happen
and and the thought here is that those
programs will be virtualized to run
through their chromebooks so students
will still have active
access to those computer labs
that will prepare their students for
credential testing
and for real-world experiences
internships jobs after high school
and and this is true across the board
for career technical electives
in addition we are looking at some
simulations
and and this really is course by course
depending on what the needs are for the
course and where they're quality
materials out there
along with all the great lessons and and
activities that our teachers are coming
up with and they've been
super creative as they're working all
summer putting these things together
but i also wanted to to ask mr swanger
and mr taylor
if you had anything you'd like to add
about that
how we're going to address hands-on
learning
as we stay home at least in the first
part of the year
i'd be glad to respond to that uh you
know just like
every other class or program we're going
to start off
virtually remotely and teachers are
going to provide both the synchronous
and asynchronous instruction
uh all of our programs have both the
theoretical
and the practical or hands-on aspects
with the heaviest
emphasis being placed on hands-on
instruction
as we begin the school year teaching and
learning will occur as if we started
school normally with the only exception
being
we're doing it remotely i mean we're
going to take attendance
we're going to introduce new material
we're going to provide students with as
many
uh uh as many
opportunities to do
hands-on experiences in a remote setting
we there there there are some options
available
there but the key is when it's safe to
return to school
our students will need to return to us
and so we can heavily emphasize that
practical or hands-on piece
because uh you know the theory is gonna
we're gonna hit the theory up front as
much as we can
but as i mentioned before with the
unique nature of our programs and the
specialized equipment materials
and processes involved it's really going
to require
students to have time to practice you
know we do have two programs that are
uh that are licensed programs students
sit for state licensure and we have
um there are requirements for
the practical or hands-on piece for both
of those in order to meet state
licensure requirements
thank you and mike what about the um
classes at the atc well the atc
we're going to be prepared to provide
access to students
to many of the specialized advanced
technologies
softwares and so forth that we use every
day like the autodesk autocad products
things like adobe the adobe suite
things like
the cisco academy that curriculum so
those
curriculum accesses are going to be
available to students
uh from home just as they would be from
at the school now again as mr swanger
said there are going to be some
face-to-face activities where we
allow students to work in a very
practical hands-on manner
which it's going to be very important
for those students to be able to
return to us when
this division moves back to face to face
and that kind of leads into a question
uh that i saw in the chat of uh can we
be virtual at home school and face to
face at the atc or
at the atc and the answer that is yes
uh students who choose
option two will be able to return
to the atc face-to-face if the division
if and when the division
moves back to face-to-face instruction
we are strongly encouraging those
students to do that
because again it is essential for them
to be here to get those practical
hands-on experiences in addition to
the curriculum that we can present in a
remote or virtual fashion
so i think we have a lot of questions
around whether
students coming to the centers
you know as families are trying to make
a decision of should they choose option
one or should they choose
option two i think we need to probably
discuss that a little bit separately for
the two centers
because we have families that we know
will choose option two
and want to choose that both for the
center and um for their home school
and we do have families that will fall
into that category that you just
described
where they are comfortable sending a
student back to the smaller population
at the center
and but still would like to remain
virtual for their core classes
so knowing that families can choose
option two
in in many instances for the centers
mike can you tell us a little bit about
choosing option two
at the atc yes if
uh the students decide to remain
virtual and still attend the atc through
that first semester or first term
then they will participate in atc
classes
in a synchronous fashion
using distance learning technology so
that they will actually take part in
many of the same lessons
that our face-to-face students will be
taking part
in but again there may be some hands-on
learning activities that those
face-to-face students would be able to
participate in
that any student remaining in a virtual
or distance learning
format would not be able to have access
to
so they they would be observers then of
those activities
now david when we think about the tech
center i know you have some programs
that
support option two and then you have
some programs where that might be a
little bit more difficult
due to state licensure guidelines for
students looking for licensure or or the
nature of the course can you share with
us
a little bit about the tech center's
plans um for
students choosing option one or option
two
absolutely um it's important to know
that while we're
while we are in that remote setting that
they're going to be many many practical
activities that can only be completed
uh during an actual hands-on practice
but we're going to cover like i said
before we're going to cover as much
theory as possible in remote learning
and where appropriate provide the
simulated uh practical experiences
and when it's safe to return for
in-person learning
we're going to emphasize the hands-on
practice
upon that at that time now if a student
and parent selected option
two it's critical that when being safe
to return
the option two students returned to the
tech center for the hands-on
practice these students would still be
allowed to remain in the vlc for their
home school classes
but it would need there would need to be
some in-person
learning for tech center courses we do
have six of our courses
that lend themselves to totally a
virtual realm
and those are pharmacy tech public
safety
tv communications and production legal
systems administration medical systems
administration
and early childhood education the
remainder of our programs
are just require you know that hands-on
piece and i
i can give a very simple example of of
laying bricks
i mean it's difficult to lay bricks
in a remote setting when a student is
learning how to
select an appropriate tool to work on an
automobile
knowing how to actually use that tool
and uh
following whatever uh specific
guidelines are provided in
a repair manual all of that has to be
done
under the guidance of a of a an industry
professional
and they need that practice uh and it's
unfortunate but
but that's just the nature of our
programs
so those barring those six uh programs
that i just mentioned
uh if uh if there's if students and
parents have chosen option two
it's really important that when it is
safe to return that those option two
students return to us for hands-on
and remain virtual for their home school
courses
now i will say if there are there are
students and parents
that simply just do not want their child
to return
to in-person learning and they're not in
the affirmation
six programs then they may need to seek
a counsel from one of their home school
counselors or someone to find
find another program or other course
that may meet
their needs thank you david and i know
that
that your school counselor and your
staff is happy to help them with those
choices as well
um and really talk over with families
you know what i know this is a hard
decision when it comes to some of those
hands-on programs
and it was a tough decision for us so we
really encourage families that are
struggling with that to reach out to
their school counselor
or to the tech center to talk about
programs and options
for some of those that do require
face-to-face
i i have seen a couple questions in the
chat
some asking clarification on the
hands-on learning and
a couple also asking about industry
certification so i think i'll start with
the industry certification the question
is will my
son or daughter still be able to sit for
the industry credential exams
that have been such a hallmark of these
virginia beach programs and the answer
to that is yes
in some cases those exams can be given
virtually in other cases
we've had some some great success this
summer with bringing students in in
small cohorts
uh both to the atc and to the tech
center
um to to sit for exams and and the plan
is to continue that and this week i know
where
this week we're doing uh i think several
hundred uh wise tests for
students um so so that is something that
we plan to continue
and are feeling very encouraged about
and that holds true for our industry
credentials as well
some other pieces of the hands-on that
parents are asking about
are things like internships a lot of our
classes both at the the home high
schools through co-op
and cooperative office education have
work experience or internships
our virginia teachers for tomorrow's
students often do classroom internships
and we've been asked how how those will
be handled so i i would like to share
with parents who are concerned about
their their
students having these real world
experiences that
we're holding out hope that those will
still be able to happen
um and a lot of those courses that
require those are being moved to the
spring term or the
which is basically our second semester
um in hopes that
that as soon as we are able we can
return students
to those real world experiences um
and and i know that holds true for the
atc and the tech center as well
dr lockett yes sir i see several
questions around
transportation getting to
the atc getting to the technical career
education center
there was a question that i saw that
talked about if we're in yellow
will those students return and it may be
uh good for the the community here kind
of the
the challenges we have with
transportation and
and what the expectations are in terms
of what we typically do to transport
students to those schools
and centers and what we have to look
forward to moving into the fall
sure and and we've uh had ongoing
conversations with transportation and
and
thinking outside the box on on how that
will happen because we know a lot of our
students depend on transportation to
those programs
and it it's it's definitely a tough one
as a parent who's had a student in the
in one of the centers i i can tell you
that my own children rode the bus from
their home high school to the atc
in the morning and and then midday rode
that bus back
as we are doing social distancing and
and
sticking to those lower numbers on a bus
especially in yellow it's going to be a
little tough
but we are committed to making that work
for our families
um and and whether that's in yellow or
in green um
i i think we'll see as we move forward
with how many students are looking for
face to face
um and we're gonna have to keep you
posted on that and i don't know mr
delaney if you want to expound on that a
little bit more
i think i think you've addressed it in
terms of some of the limitations that we
have in terms of the numbers of students
that can be on a bus i know our
operations team and our transportation
division is looking to ensure
for example if we were yellow and ninth
graders are coming back
how do we transport them to different uh
academies and so forth
i think really the key is is just where
are we with our with our health
mitigation
and one of the numbers of students that
need to be transported to those centers
will have an impact
i know we are discussing a lot of
alternative ways to do that
um and i know we're looking at a lot of
solutions to ensure that that can happen
because
we certainly do not want a lack of
transportation to be a reason for a
student not to be able to attend
one of our programs and i just think
it's important for them to understand
that typically students that do not
drive themselves to the centers
catch a bus at their home school at some
point during the day
and for those as mr taylor talked about
the opportunity to choose option
uh two for their home school and option
one to go to the tech centers
that there there will be some things
we'll need to work out from what that
looks like from a transportation and how
they would report to the school
how we'd safely get them on the bus um
and and kind of
alleviate some of the concerns a parent
maybe may have in that scenario
so i think it's just important for them
to know that we're working on that piece
and
trying to to make sure that uh
i'm certain there's some families that
are wondering will my child be able to
still receive transportation to the
center
sure thank you dr logging and i i think
it would be helpful too
for our families to know if you could
could reach out to
the counselor at the center or or one of
our directors and and make sure that
this
that we're aware if you have chosen
option two but you plan
to avail yourself of option one just for
the center
it's good for us to make sure that we
know that your student will be there and
i'm sure
that the center staff is also going to
be checking in
on you know number of students who
believe
you know they need transportation so i'm
sure you'll be hearing from from center
staff as we get closer to that date
um dr lockett i think it's it's
extremely important for them to to work
with mr swanger and mr taylor and let
them know that they're they're leaning
in that direction and
um to continue to get the the guidance
from uh both of them i hate to speak for
them but they're extremely committed to
their programs they've been invested
into those centers for
for many years and and i think they will
they will do whatever it takes to ensure
that kids are getting that just vital
uh technical education that we're
fortunate to provide for them so
if you're in that position as a family
where that's the decision you you plan
on making
then i certainly believe you would want
to reach out directly to
to mr swanger mr taylor i'm sure they'll
be checking on it as well
but from a from an efficiency standpoint
it'll be helpful as you contact them
moving forward
mr swanger i see so and mr taylor i see
some questions
that are being asked that that appears
that people are looking to get
information
on the tech centers in general how do
they apply
where can they get more information i'm
seeing a few of those questions so i
believe we have an audience here
that is also just interested in and
what's out there where would you point
them to go to get that level of
information
well first anybody anyone can visit our
website our application is online
we have a nice video that clearly
explains or or
showcases all of our programs they can
contact myself
our school counselor at any time
and our contact information is is on our
website
um and it's readily available we still
have some space in certain programs
uh if i could mr delaney if i could just
for one minute because i saw numerous
questions in the chat still pertaining
to
people being unclear about the hands-on
piece can i can i just mention something
else briefly
sure just to be clear that students will
remain
in the virtual realm until it has been
deemed safe by the division and all of
its medical professionals
and once students start to transition
back based on our opening of school plan
students will then based on that
transition and uh
when they're allowed to return to the
center uh for that hands-on piece that's
when we will heavily emphasize
that practical experience and get a lot
of hands-on practice
immediately upon their return so i think
that that that
that should clarify some of those other
questions
uh and i may not have been clear when i
answer that i think mr swanger i think i
would i think you clarified it i think
what people are concerned is how quick
will that happen what will it look like
and i think that they just
will will gain a deeper understanding if
they reach out to you about how flexible
you all will be with what that looks
like when they return
as i know the school division is not
going to rush into a
face-to-face return without really
planning out what that's going to look
like for all of our programs and
i know dr alexander it's almost time to
wrap up but
for those individuals that are looking
for more information on those centers
you can go to our vb schools website
under academic programs and you will see
the technical and career education
center and the advanced technology
center
included in that lineup of selections
that you can get more information
but families of students that are
currently enrolled at those two centers
highly recommend that you connect with
mr schwanger and mr taylor
as we continue the choice process over
the next couple of days
dr alexander thank you
thank you mr delaney and thank you to
all the panelists and special thanks to
our virginia beach
city public schools community for
watching um this session
and watching all three sessions and
asking these great questions we hope
that this helps you as you continue to
guide guide you through the
through to the fall 2020 school year
and remember to view our faqs on
dbvschools.com
and also all three sessions are going to
be recorded um so please
view them as well at your at your
leisure at vbschools.com
also thank you so much for joining us
this evening
please join us on thursday for our
second bb safe together community chat
with dr lakish parrot discussing the
global issues
of homelessness and how our city and
school division continues to address the
needs of citizens
without excuse me without adequate
housing
and resources as well as project the
project code program
once again i want to thank everyone for
tuning in tonight for this
special parent connection series thank
you to our panelists
and have a great night be safe
so
do
you
