District considers virtual academy
Siloam Springs School District is considering starting virtual academy in August that would give students a home-based school option.
The proposed virtual academy would not take the place of traditional school but would instead offer an additional avenue to serve kids, according to Superintendent Jody Wiggins. The academy would allow parents to educate their children at home while still enjoying some of the benefits of public schools such as extracurricular activities, fine arts, transcripts, diplomas and graduation, Wiggins wrote in a letter to parents.
On Friday, Wiggins said he anticipates traditional school will begin as usual in August, but said that educators may have to be ready to transition to teaching students online at times.
The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday directed Arkansas school districts to prepare an education program for the coming school year that relies on face-to-face and online instruction with the flexibility to blend them and to pivot from one to the other, according to a report in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“I’m not sure what school will look like at that point,” he said. “We will have to wait for guidance from the Arkansas Department of Health and Department of Education.”
Classes in the virtual academy would be 100 percent online and would not be taught by local teachers, Wiggins said. Instead, the school district would contract with a private company that will provide Arkansas standards-based curriculum and instruction, he said. The district would also hire local staff members to manage the program and help students, the letter states.
Wiggins said he doesn’t anticipate a large number of students enrolling in the virtual academy and said the district may have to put a cap on the number.
“I think the students who will be successful would be very highly motivated students with a lot of parent support and encouragement,” he said.
The district offered parents an online survey last week to gauge interest in the proposed academy. Approximately 125 parents responded that they are interested while another 150 said they were undecided, Wiggins said. As of Friday, 65 families had signed up to attend a series of parent information meetings this week, he said. Some meetings will take place online while others will take place using social distancing practices. If there is increased interest more meetings may be added, he said.
The school district began formulating a plan for a virtual academy before the covid-19 pandemic hit and closed schools for in-person instruction in mid-March, Wiggins said. Administrators were looking for an alternative way of educating kids who don’t do well in a traditional class setting, he said.
The district did not originally plan to begin the virtual academy in August, but the pandemic situation moved the timeline up, he said.
“As we investigated and planned, the current pandemic situation broke out and some additional folks may fall into that category (of people who are interested in the virtual academy) and might choose to keep kids at home,” he said.
The district is in the process of choosing a company to partner with for a virtual academy and the situation is still fluid, Wiggins said. He hopes the school can make a decision by early July, he said.
“It is not a cheap option,” he said. “It will be an additional resource and an additional cost for the district.”
For more information or to sign up for an information meeting, visit siloam schools.com or on the district’s social media pages.