Knoch High School junior Quinn Hughes attends virtual class in her Penn Township home. All South Butler students are attending school via Google Classroom since Gov. Tom Wolf closed public schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

A nine-question survey from South Butler County School District elicited 915 responses revealing parents are pretty happy with the district's handling of virtual learning during the coronavirus pandemic.

Regarding four questions requiring answers of “the right amount,” “too much” or “not enough,” the average response was 81.8 percent for “the right amount.” Those questions included the amount of communication from the district and teachers, the amount of work assigned to students at home, and the amount of interaction between student and teacher.

Other questions requiring answers of “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” received similar results.

Most answers to those questions about the effective use of Google Classroom and Chromebooks were in the “strongly agree” and “agree” categories.

“It's good that our parents are feeling pretty confident with the tools we are using,” said David Foley, the district's superintendent. “In a relatively short time, through the hard work of the staff and the cooperation of students and parents, we were able to get good things going on in the last nine weeks of school.”

On average, 82.3 percent of respondents said their children and teens were spending more than two hours per day on school work.

Short window to implement

Foley said administration and teachers had five days to think about how Google Classrooms would be rolled out to students.

The program and instructions were sent home to students and their families three days after the program was agreed upon by the educators.

“Virtual classrooms are difficult, and we put this together while asking students and parents to participate,” Foley said, adding another survey specific to the district's school buildings and grade levels likely will be coming in the near future.

“There are a lot more challenges when you are asking 5- and 6-year-olds to do things on Google Classrooms than our high school students,” Foley said. “The cooperation of parents is evident because young students need help.”

He said teachers, especially in the elementary grades, are being directed to record lessons that could be viewed by students at any time during the day, so those with siblings also using one computer aren't competing for the unit.

Time spent on school work

The final question in the survey asked how many hours per day students were spending on school work.

Between two and three hours was the most frequent response, at 29.7 percent.

Between three and four hours received 29.3 percent of responses, while four or more hours came in at 23.2 percent. Just 17.7 percent of those who responded said their children spent no more than two hours per day doing school work.

Foley said that question will definitely appear on the new grade-specific survey, as older students have a longer attention span than the district's youngest.

“It's hard for a primary student to sit at a computer and go through several hours of school work,” Foley said.

He said the district has parents who are working at home, still going to work, and even some who are working in the Butler Health System, including doctors and nurses.

“They are trying to deal with a lot of things in their families right now,” Foley said.

The final question on the survey allows responders to share any additional thoughts they have about remote education.

Foley said about half of those who responded added a comment, and most were positive or at least polite if a suggestion was offered.

Those answers will be shared with teachers and discussions will be ongoing on parent suggestions gleaned in the survey.

Foley said he is encouraged by the response to the district survey and he hopes parents will respond with as much gusto to the one coming in the next few weeks.

He said the survey was sent to parents on a Friday at 3 p.m. By 9 p.m., he had received 450 responses.

“We know there are families out there seeing our communications and families who care about what is going on in the school district and what their students are learning and how the whole process is going,” Foley said.