Danville Public Schools teachers, staff adjusting to coronavirus closures

Virus has been a learning experience for the school district

DANVILLE, Va. – Fifth grade teacher Allison Parris has been busy this past month despite not being in her classroom.

“A lot of adjustment and a lot of trial and error, gathering information and trying to figure out what our kids have access to and what they don’t," Parris said.

She has three children of her own who she's also been working to educate.

“My husband and I sat down and we said, ‘We will have a schedule, that way everybody knows.’ It’s posted in all their bedrooms; it’s posted in the kitchen," Parris explained.

The education goes both ways though.

“I have learned and taught myself so many different little gadgets and things, like on Class Dojo, Google Classroom," Parris said. "I definitely think that we will be using things like that next year.”

Learning isn't just confined to teachers and students.

The school district’s nutrition director, Phillip Gardner, said keeping kids fed has been a learning process.

“It started with a very small process on how we decided we wanted to feed the kids with our food truck that we acquired last year," said Gardner.

There are now 13 feeding sites throughout the city.

“What we found initially, transportation was a barrier with parents having to be at work and such. So we wanted to get into centralized locations where the students could walk to the locations," said Gardner.

Proof that even when schools are closed, learning, in more ways than one, doesn't stop.

For more information about how the school district is dealing with the coronavirus, click here.