WSD awarded $47K for digital equity initiatives

WARDEN — The Warden School District was recently awarded two grants totaling about $47,000 through the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, both as part of OSPI’s digital equity and inclusion initiatives. 

Warden Director of Teaching and Learning Jill Massa notified the Warden School Board of the grants during the Feb. 8 meeting. 

“It's all about opportunity, whatever opportunities we can get for our kids,” Massa said. “There are also competitive grants that come out every year. We watch them, we try to see if they fit with what we have, with our demographics and things because sometimes they require certain (qualifications). These were two competitive grants that we put in for and the push for these is digital equity.”

According to OSPI’s website, digital equity and inclusion in education is the effort for all students no matter their geography, socioeconomic status, race or school district to have equitable access to the same quality of education.

The first grant Massa introduced was a $15,000 digital equity and Inclusion grant for adaptive technology. Massa said there are a variety of devices the district could have used the funding for.

“What we decided is that one of our needs is for our students who are not native English speakers,” Massa said. “We really want to make sure that they know that they're part of our school, that we appreciate them and we are wanting to help them learn English, but we also know that it's difficult to sit in a classroom and have someone speaking to you in a different language and you don't understand any of it.”

Massa said the school purchased 40 Pocketalk mobile translation devices. 

“Not all of our students have a phone that they can use for translation and things like that,” she said. “So, they're a small device … they will be checking those out and (students) can use them in the classroom, they can take them with them if they're on a sports team, and socially at lunchtime. That way they can communicate with the others around them and the people in the school and feel like they're a part of it even if they don't understand.”

The devices do not discourage students from working to learn English better, Massa said.

“What they find is the students are often holding back and not communicating as much because they feel nervous about what they're doing,” she said. “These devices will help them feel more comfortable.”

The device is a real-time translator that allows two individuals speaking different languages to converse by showing the translations on the device and playing them out loud. The device can also translate text through its camera.

The second grant Massa discussed is a $32,000 Digital Navigation Grant, which funds initiatives to assist students and families in accessing and navigating online resources. 

“The idea behind this one was that often parents really want to be involved in their kids’ education but they don't know how to navigate a lot of the internet things that come up,” Massa said. “They also maybe don't know how to get involved with things that are in the community because they're not sure how to navigate or they don't have the devices.”

Massa said the grant will fund classes from Warden’s Family Engagement & Communication Specialist Prisma Corrales.

“What she's been doing is a parent academy,” Massa said. “This will actually be for six meetings where parents are going to come in and we're going to teach them actually how to use devices; how to do emails, how to do what seem like simple things to some of us, but they aren't to everyone. We're going to help them get hooked up with a little lower-priced internet so that they're able to do that.”

To help teach the classes, the district will partner with representatives from North Central Washington Tech Alliance, Massa said.

“They'll come in and help teach our parents how they can get on Skyward and check their kid’s grades, how can they check attendance, how can they work with their kids on Canvas,” she said. “We will have babysitting for them if they need babysitters and we're going to have translators available.”

Massa said the district will purchase 20 computers for parents to use during the classes and beyond for future events or if a parent needs to access online resources. NCW Tech Alliance will also train Corrales to continue the classes on her own. 

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

    A row of computers is stacked next to a computer cart in Warden High School’s library. Warden School District will be purchasing 20 similar computers for its upcoming classes teaching parents how to access and navigate online resources, funded by a grant from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.