In his daily newsletter Wednesday, Richmond Superintendent Jason Kamras said the school district will get 7,000 more laptops for its students later this week. For students currently using RPS tablets, Kamras expects they will be able to trade those in for laptops next week.
While Richmond schools handed out 16,000 laptops over the spring and summer, the district was still short by about 5,000. The new batch of computers are part of a larger order RPS placed in June.
In August, Kamras said that the June order of 10,000 Chromebooks was delayed due to a supply shortage, which he attributed to national trade tensions with China.
In his email, the superintendent also told Richmond Public School families and staff that he’s recommending a new grading scale for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. He says he will make the recommendation to the Richmond school board on Monday.
Rather than using the traditional A through F scale, Kamras is proposing a scale that uses E for “exceeds expectations,” S for “satisfactory,” N for “needs improvement” and U for “Unsatisfactory.”
Last week, Richmond teachers put out a petition calling for a more lenient grading scale for students in virtual classes. The petition says a departure from the A through F scale would make for more equitable grading, given some students’ lack of access to technology.
More than 450 people signed the petition.
