MSBSD Roundup: Deployment of district-provided student devices, GoGuardian Parent App, 1 minute of silence

The Matanuska Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) has been making an effort to recognize the benefit of electronic tools to student learning and improving academic performance.

Starting this school year, MSBSD is providing every student with a Chromebook to enhance their learning. Students in grades 3-12 will transport their Chromebook to and from school. Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd-grade students will store their Chromebooks in their classroom. Assigned Chromebooks will remain with the student throughout the school year and summer, and all 3rd and 8th graders will be assigned a new Chromebook.

Of course, there are guideline families will need to follow when utilizing one of these devices. Students must comply with the MSBSD responsible use policy, which parents must sign off.

Students are expected to keep their Chromebook safe, secure, charged, and in good working order. In addition, students must notify their teacher or librarian if their Chromebook is broken or fails to work properly.

As sometimes happens, if a student accidentally leaves their device at home, they can check out a loaner device from their library. Limited loaners will be available and must be returned at the end of the school day.

Students will also be expected to not only keep their Chromebooks charged and in good working order, but are advised to bring them to school fully charged and ready to use. This means charging the device nightly and leaving the cord at home.

For parents who worry about the content their students use and share on school-issued devices, the MSBSD does filter the internet is at all times, whether at school or on another network. Teachers are also able to apply additional filtering rules to aid in classroom management.

For parents who wonder about the content their students interact with on school-issued devices, MSBSD is participating in the GoGuardian Parent App.

The app is a mobile app designed to provide parents/guardians insight and control over their student’s online activity when they are using their Chromebooks and other school-managed devices and accounts.

Created to help provide students with additional educational support, the app also acts as a companion to the classroom engagement and internet filtering tools that the MSBSD schools already use.

The app can be utilized to obtain direct access to the data you need to have open and honest conversations between parent and student.

For parents interested in downloading the app, it is available on the Google Play and Apple Stores, and other instructions can be found on the MSBSD website.

Finally, the MSBSD School Board recently passed an ordinance mandating 1 minute of silence/meditation at the start of each school day. Last week, MSBSD Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani sent out a letter to families indicating that the policy will begin on Monday, October 17, just in time for the 2nd quarter.

In part, the letter states that the principal of each school shall require teachers in homeroom/first-period classrooms in all grades to set aside at least 1 minute, not to exceed but not more than 2 minutes, every day for a moment of silence, during which students may not interfere with other students’ participation.

Teachers are not to make suggestions as to the nature of any reflection that a student may engage in during the moment of silence.

Homeroom/first period classroom teachers are encouraged to meet parents or guardians to discuss with their children how to best use the moment of silence established by this Board Policy.

On a different note, with regards to the rolling bus cancellations, Durham School Services has been adding more bus drivers every week, which should allow for 1 regular education bus route cancellation, down from the 2 cancellations per week. This change is supposed to take effect starting Monday, October 24, 2022. In November, MSBSD is hoping to have all routes running daily.

For more information, please visit the MSBSD website at www.matsuk12.us