Savannah-Chatham to offer "Twilight School" to help working families

In an effort to accommodate the schedules of working parents of children in online school, the Savannah-Chatham County Public School system is offering online Twilight School for elementary school students.

The offering of additional instruction for K-5 students is receiving mixed reviews on the district's Facebook page. A few parents seem to like the idea, but a few other people commented that teachers should not be forced to teach an additional three hours each day.

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The school district countered saying that it's up to the individual teacher to participate in Twilight School, but that it's also "an opportunity to make additional money," said Vallerie Cave, associate superintendent of school transformation and innovation. The district also said that it is recruiting more teachers to work these additional hours; and that it has set aside local funds to pay the salaries for this program.

Cave and Kimberly Hancock, associate superintendent learning support services, participated in a press event via Zoom on Wednesday afternoon to answer questions about the Twilight School option. Cave explained that the option is for families who cannot be home with their children during the day due to their work schedules. She added that just during the first day of enrollment for this program on Tuesday, 60 families have already signed up. Enrollment ends on Tuesday. The virtual Twilight School will begin on Sept. 21 and run from 4:30-7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"I'm dealing with children [who are] being taken care of by grandparents, or taken care of by older siblings [who have to attend their own school online; and we want to] provide them that additional support in the evening," Cave explained. "The virtual learning world is different. It's new for everyone. We made sure that we're able to give those families in K-5 the opportunity and some additional support. Early intervention and early education is where we need to really concentrate in order to get students ready for middle [school] and above."

Cave added that Twilight School can also help students mitigate any learning loss that may have occurred due to the school closure last spring.

Who's watching the kids?

But Twilight School still doesn't adequately answer the question of "Who's watching the kids?" during the day.

"My concern is for my employees," said Robert Bilbrough, COO of Savannah-based fulfillment.com. "I have a lot of single [parents] working for me. And it's been very difficult for them. I have always been absolutely amazed by the work ethic and resilience of single parents -- especially single moms."

He added that as an essential employer, "I'm in an industry where you can't work remotely. Remote work rules [state that], if you have a child under 10 at home with you, you must have another adult supervising that child from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.," which means that his employees still have to have some sort of child care for their school-aged children.

"I am dealing with federal and state laws that require me to treat all of my employees fairly and equally. That means that virtually all of my employees cannot work remotely," Bilbrough explained. He said that he tries to allow flexibility with his employees' shifts, "[But] for the ones who have no support whatsoever, [they] are the ones that are stuck."

Bilbrough expressed frustration at the SCCPSS administration regarding the virtual-only option for schools.

"We like Savannah. We are concerned about public schools. Our schools need to be opened safely," he said. "Our property taxes that we pay in Savannah -- there is plenty of money to get it done. If your mission statement is to educate children, you should spend every cent to do that."

He cited some of the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- providing adequate ventilation and employ the "pod" concept, where small groups of children stay together all day.

Attend all or part

Despite calls from frustrated parents to reopen the schools, SCCPSS is continuing with virtual school and various accommodations for students with scheduling issues and spotty or no Internet connection. The district hopes that the Twilight School option bridges at least one of those gaps. Twilight School can either be regular school or a tutoring option.

Students can attend all or part of the Twilight School in addition to -- or instead of -- their regular school. Cave explained that students who attend virtual school during the day will be dual-enrolled in the Twilight School, if they choose.

Just like the daytime virtual school, attendance will be based on student engagement during class and submission of assignments. According to Cave, a typical schedule will have art, music, English/language arts and social studies on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the schedule will include physical activities (PE), math and science. On Fridays, Twilight School will offer small-group interventions. The last 30 minutes of every day will be dedicated to independent learning where students can work on assignments from their teachers and receive help as they need it.

"We're really excited to bring this opportunity to our families to meet them where they need," Hancock added. "We saw the angst. We saw the Facebook posts and we wanted to provide another avenue for families. We can support them and their students to help them be successful."

Students who are enrolled and active in virtual school during the day do not have to attend all three hours of Twilight School every night. If a student just needs a little help in a single subject, help is available there as well.

Hancock continued, "There's really a two-prong approach where students who just need a little bit more support, like our students with disabilities, can log in. They can join part of this for extra support in language arts, or math. [Students can] just log in for the one session. Parents have the option to choose which area they want their child to receive the additional support."

The district added that when the virtual learning period ends, and students return to face-to-face instruction, students may transition back to their home schools or elect to stay with the twilight virtual learning program.

More information and a link to register can be found on the district website at sccpss.com.

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