Roosevelt School District shares how they’ve helped students struggling

The Roosevelt School District serves 80 percent of Arizona’s Hispanic demographic across 19 different schools. Those schools have been closed since March due to COVID-19. Horizonte host José Cárdenas spoke with Roosevelt School District Superintendent Dr. Quintin Boyce about efforts to help families and students during this difficult time.

“Since the pandemic really hit home in March we closed in person operation. We’ve always remained serving our students and our families in a distance learning format, since back in the spring in March,” said Boyce.

Before the school closure, the Roosevelt School District invested in Apple technology. This came right before a time where remote technology is emphasized.

“When it came time for moving into a remote or digital learning environment. I was super happy about just our foresight, just to deploy technology to our community. That’s one of the big gaps that we’re seeing that the communities have to try to fill and figure out is how do you get technology in the hands of pupils and families,” said Boyce.

The District provides 100% free and reduced lunches to their students.

One of the biggest divides Boyce said occurred when transitioning to online was, “the digital divide. And that was one of the big impacts that we had to figure out how to overcome. How do we get our students and our families, connected? When you’re talking about people who don’t have Wi Fi internet access.”

Roosevelt School District worked with community partners to ensure that every student that needed Wi Fi access would get it.

There is a growing concern about the lack of socialization remote learning causes for young students.

“I will never admit that distance learning is better than in person. There’s something about being together, and students being in a classroom,” said Boyce.

But, Boyce continued to say, “we, again, continue to prioritize safety in our community.”

The District is working solely on data to figure out when the best time is to transition teachers and students back to in-person learning.

“We’ve, we’ve worked really hard as far as our district team and our governing board to be as communicative as possible,” said Boyce.

To enroll at Roosevelt School District visit: www.RSD66.org.