Pasadena Unified Offering Drive-In Tech Support After First Week of Distance Learning a ‘Qualified Success’

The first week of an unprecedented online-only school year went relatively smoothly, although there were some issues with students’ computers and other technical challenges that the Pasadena Unified School District is working to address, said the president of the Board of Education.

Students received instruction Monday through Wednesday, while Thursday and Friday were set aside for staff development.

“Based upon the feedback I have been getting from parents, the first day was a qualified success,” said PUSD Board President Patrick Cahalan. “There were issues with the new platform, but staff established workarounds and parent groups were quick to relay them to everyone at schools I checked in with.”

Some more significant technical challenges emerged, such as hardware problems or receiving machines that had not been updated, Cahalan said, “but those will be ironed out quickly, I suspect.”

“The district planned for the short week this week partially so that staff could have (professional development) to address issues and so that students who were experiencing undiscovered issues with their Chromebooks would have the next three days to go to the (Technology Services) Department.”

Additionally, the school turned the closed Franklin Elementary School campus in Altadena into a drive-in technology services center, according to PUSD Board of Education Vice President Scott Phelps. Service is done by appointment to ensure social distancing, officials added.

PUSD parent Beata Espinosa said her two daughters, who are in the third and eighth grades, had differing experiences with the first days of school.

“My daughter in eighth grade seems to be doing well with navigating the online schedule. There is more structured content and classes seem organized, said. “It is my understanding that teachers will be having a lot more training this week as the kids will not have school on Thursday and Friday.”

“My third-grader has had frustrations,” Espinosa said in an email. “She will log into an app, do an assignment, and then have to wait for the rest of the class that may be taking longer and waiting for help. That’s when she starts daydreaming and trying to wander off.”

“There are dozens of apps on their homepage and each one has a different code/password to sign in,” the mother added. “This is a lot for the little ones to juggle. I can see that a lot of kids are on their own because their parents are either trying to work or assisting younger siblings. I feel really bad for the teacher as she tries to address each child’s questions coming at her at once. I felt I needed to be by her side to assist throughout the day. It is too soon to tell how this will go.”

But beyond the technical hiccups, “My main concern that I would want the district to know about is the kid’s mental health,” Espinosa said. “They are both spending too much time staring at a screen. From school to extracurricular activities online to socializing with their friends. All this is being done in front of a screen. I worry that they are getting depressed and they don’t have anything to look forward to like they used to.”

Tina Pham said she has one son in sixth grade and another in third grade.

“The teachers were very obviously at different comfort levels with the technology they needed to use,” she said. “Washington (Middle School) offered an online Google Meet where staff members offered students tech support via video the whole morning, and my son found that immensely helpful on the first day of school.”

“My experience has been that my younger son, who started third grade, needed a lot more help,” she Pham said.

District officials offered several key links to help students and parents.

Appointments with the Technology Services Department can be made online at pusd.us/Page/3246.

Parents having difficulty resetting their students’ passwords were advised they can access the feature from the Parent Portal at https://arms.pusd.us/idp/AuthnEngine#/help-links.

A “Parent University” web page has also been set up to help parents and includes how-to videos. It can be accessed at https://pasadena.instructure.com/courses/8336.