Published November 4, 2020

By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — Teaching and Learning Director Kevin Cyr gave an overview of a parent survey during the School Committee’s Oct. 27 meeting.

School officials administered the survey a couple of weeks ago in order to collect feedback about how the hybrid learning and remote learning plans have been working.

“It was a four-week check-in with parents,” said Superintendent Kristen Vogel.

Parents were asked different questions about their children such as what grade they are in, which school they attend and whether they are participating in hybrid or remote learning. Parents were also asked whether their children are receiving any additional support such as being on an IEP.

School officials also asked parents if they are concerned about their child’s academic and social growth. Parents responded to questions about COVID-19 safety protocols and school technology as well.

“It was very positive overall, but there is still room for improvement,” said Cyr.

Cyr said the majority of families responded to the survey’s questions.

“We appreciate the level of feedback we got from the community,” said Cyr. “The response was pretty incredible.”

Cyr said parents commended educators’ efforts with implementing the hybrid and remote learning models this year.

“There were so many positive things said about our educators,” said Cyr. “All of the recognition is well-deserved. We shared parents’ responses with our educators because we felt it was important for our educators to hear what our families had to say about their practice. It was well-deserved appreciation for our educators and the work they are doing.”

While parents commended the work being done by educators, Cyr said parents “want to see more in-person learning.” He said elementary parents were more “vocal” about implementing more in-person learning because they stated remote learning has been incredibly challenging for young children.

“Putting my parent hat on, I can certainly relate to that, having a first-grader,” said Cyr. “The ability to engage remote learning at that level is very challenging. I certainly appreciate those comments and that is an area we are taking a closer look at. This doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all approach. Parents are grateful for when their children are in school. When I wake up in the morning, my wife and I are grateful when our children get to go to school for another day.”

School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman said the board also wants more in-person learning. However, he said the town being classified as “red” by the Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center for the second straight week and the fifth time in the past two months makes adding more in-person days difficult at this point.

“What we have said from the beginning is this committee’s goal is to get kids into the schools as much as we possibly can,” said Hayman. “We want more in-person learning. That is only going to happen if the community gets the numbers down. We have done this before. We went from ‘red’ to ‘yellow’ to ‘green.’ We know that we can do this. If we can get kids back in school more, we are ready to do it. But we will see if we are able to.”

Cyr also said parents expressed concerns about their children’s academic and social growth, including peer relationships. He said families were “grateful” for the school system’s safety protocols.

“They seem to be working well and hopefully that continues,” said Cyr.

Cyr also noted that families felt “more comfortable accessing” school technology.

“This speaks to the survey results we got in the spring,” said Cyr. “I think our families had some legitimate issues accessing the technology. We made a real effort in this district, especially over the summer, to streamline those technology tools used in the classroom. I want to give kudos to our Technology Department for strengthening that approach. That is showing in the results. There is more comfort at the younger levels as well, which was a level of concern in terms of being able to access these different tools.”

Vogel said a survey for teachers was undertaken last week.