Coronavirus Won't Stop Natomas Unified From Trying To Finish The School Year

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Sacramento County officials want residents to shelter in place to fight against the spread of the coronavirus, but the Natomas Unified School District says they are planning to finish the school year anyway.

Leaders with the Natomas Unified School District call it a heavy lift and say the school won't look the same. There will be no cheering on sports teams and no high fives to classmates.

"Learning should continue," said Deidra Powell with the school district. "It's out of our control. We're just trying to work through this with our families, so kids can continue to be educated."

She says Natomas is lucky to have access to technology like Chrome Books during the school year. They have enough to hand out to families who don't have computers at home.

"What we wanted to know is what type of access have at home," she said. "Do they have a device where students could actually do work?"

School will be off until after spring break, then the district transfers to "distance learning" to finish the year.

"Were setting up virtual offices and virtual support so that families have someone to talk to," said Powell.

Teachers will be trained on how to virtually educate through online platforms.

"Our teachers will start to get acquainted with the materials: distance learning and folks who will get it up and all ready," said Powell.

But Thursday, a shelter in place directive was given for all of Sacramento County.

Now Powell says they're working on how they can physically give out the tools kids needs to finish the year.

"At this point, we don't know and so we will have to see how that impacts our plan,"  said Powell.

She says kids still need to learn, and not all families have devices to do that. So at this point, they're still moving forward.