Explanation
This ordinance authorizes the City of Columbus, Department of Technology, to enter into an agreement with Columbus City Schools, hereinafter referred to as the District. Under the terms of the agreement, or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the City will reimburse the District $7,150,000 in federal CARES Act funding for the purchase of 20,000 student computers (Chromebooks) and related software, licenses and warranties as part of the District’s educational technology and virtual learning plan.
K-12 public education statewide and at CCS is in the midst of a teaching and learning paradigm shift that began before the Covid-19 pandemic. This shift expanded the traditional notion of the public classroom to an extended, or blended learning approach where a student’s education is augmented with rich K-12 content outside of the classroom.
The Covid-19 pandemic rapidly changed and reinforced the need to move to a virtual and blended learning approach to public education. In the 2019-2020 school year, primary and secondary classrooms statewide were closed by executive order of the Governor due to Covid-19.
While the 2020-2021 school year plans are still uncertain due to the ever-changing nature of Covid-19 locally, what is clear is that the 2020-2021 school year will continue to require various aspects of remote or blended learning for all K-12 students in Ohio, including CCS students.
The District’s re-opening plan for the 2020-2021 school year includes various learning options or frameworks, for students and their parents to choose from including the CCS Digital Academy, Blending Learning and a combination of the CCS Digital Academy and Blended Learning.
In all three models, access to digital learning tools, connectivity to the Internet, K-12 lesson plans and learning content as wells as on-going teacher and student technology training and support are vital to programmatic and learning outcomes for the district and students.
Given the potential for...
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