Overton’s Week Of Virtual Causing Some Parents Problems

The first half week of virtual only learning for Overton County Schools has gone smoothly except for some parents not being available at home.

Director of Schools Mark Winningham said the school system is trying to accommodate working parents that utilize child care.

“Lessons are all being recorded. For some students, it is being delivered on flash drives,” Winningham said. “With other students where they may have childcare. The parents have had to do childcare. Those are recorded. They can come in later that evening and watch the lessons and do the homework.”

Winningham said some parents have also came to the schools asking for technological help. But overall, the school system has seen significantly less technological problems and absentees compared to last spring. After this week, in person instruction will return Monday.

“Obviously, anytime you go from in person to virtual you are going to have some issues with technology,” Winningham said. “But, parents have been very cooperative. The schools have assisted in any way that they could to address those things.”

Winningham said enough laptops were available for students without access, but the school system is still trying to achieve the one to one student to laptop ratio.

“If they needed one, I think they were available,” Winningham said. “But many people have devices at home, so they did not need those. But, we are still, like most people in the state, waiting on delivery of devices that just are not here yet.”

During the transition, teachers continued to instruct their in person classrooms virtually with no major teacher changes needed. The week of virtual learning followed the school system’s fall break to give students and teachers enough time to see if any COVID symptoms developed. The schools were also sanitized.