coronavirus

San Diego Unified School District Officials Discuss Learning Opportunities Amid Closures

The press conference is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. Monday

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San Diego Unified School District officials revealed students will be able to tune into local cable to access 12 hours of programming that will have lessons for children as schools remain shut down amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, the first day the closures went into effect, Superintendent Cindy Marten was joined by Heather Milne of KPBS to announce the at-home learning option will be available on the secondary channel, KPBS2. Beginning Monday, KPBS2 will broadcast the lessons from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in blocks that will be divided by grades.

"It's to help foster continued education for our kids while they're at home," Milne said.

The channel can be accessed with antenna at channel 15.2, Cox subscribers can tune in at channel 811 and Spectrum users can access the channel at 1277.

Programs for children in kindergarten through third grade will be scheduled from 6 to 8 a.m., grades fourth through eighth will have their programs scheduled from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and students in grades nine through twelve will have their courses scheduled from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Along with the broadcast learning opportunity, a digital component will be made available and will have access to libraries that have free educational resources at ca.pbslearningmedia.org. District officials have not said how students without home computer access will be able to access those resources since not every pupil has a take-home laptop.

Public libraries announced closures through April 6, posing a challenge for students without a computer or Internet access at home.

On Friday, the district announced it will shut down schools until April 6 in an effort to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading. Various other school districts in the county followed suit.

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Despite the closures, students will be able to pick up free meals from schools beginning Monday. Through a partnership with Feeding San Diego, the students will be given fresh fruit and vegetables.

Any student from ages 2 to 18 can go to a participating school location to claim their meal from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday. Click here to see a full list.

"What I've experienced in the last several days is an unbelievable outpouring of support from partners all over this city saying, 'We're here to help,'" Marten said.

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