NLR district plans virtual-academy survey

The North Little Rock School District will send out a survey this week to parents to get a better grasp on who is willing to participate in its virtual academy for the coming school year.

Officials sent out a survey in June to gauge interest in the virtual academy, but the 8,000-student school district has heard back from only 3,000 parents. The coming survey will ask parents about their intentions for the school year and their internet connectivity.

Interim Superintendent Keith McGee told members of the Reopening School Task Force that he wants to release a video message to parents that will be followed by the new survey.

McGee said he wants to call, text and email parents about the survey. He said the district also plans to set up a computer lab to allow parents to complete the survey.

The task force meeting was held the same day Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that Arkansas will spend $10 million in federal aid to buy Wi-Fi access devices for families with school-age children.

Task force member Robert Birch, the district’s director of development, said getting responses to survey is important to gauge the potential use of the virtual academy and how to properly staff it.

“Out of this meeting that is the biggest key that we can push is to get that survey back in,” Birch said during the meeting that was held on Facebook Live. “So everybody that is typing in the comments — ‘Why is this so late?’ — there is your reason.

“We can’t set up a virtual academy if we don’t know how many students are going to be in it.”

School district spokesman Dustin Barnes said he wasn’t sure of the exact date the survey would go out, but that it would be on the school’s website and social media when released.

The district’s current plan for the school year calls for a virtual academy and in-person instruction, but task force members continue to look into other options, as well.

Birch raised a concept that some Texas school districts have adopted that slowly phases students back into school. Under the model, he said, the first quarter of the school year would be completely virtual, the second quarter would be blended learning, and by the third quarter it would be completely in person.

“It will be difficult for some, but all these options will be difficult,” Birch said. “I have a feeling after some conversations that it would be easier to start this way than getting them back into the school and then shutting it back down. I hope that our state agency gets behind it.”

Under the plan, students who signed up for the virtual academy can stay in it when students go into the blended learning and in-person phases.

McGee said he also had heard that other school districts across the state are discussing the plan with the Arkansas Department of Education, but he didn’t want to give the impression that the concept was finalized.

“I hate to give people false hope,” he said. “It’s in my professional opinion that we have to make a decision on what is best with the full support of our state agency. We need to be mindful of the fact that we are a state public agency. We need their support.”

Kimberly Mundell, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education, said school districts have flexibility when it comes to addressing the coming school year.

She said there is no planned announcement regarding the proposals discussed during the North Little Rock School District meeting.