Wake schools are already working on a virtual option for fall for those who want it
The Wake County school system plans to continue offering a virtual option this fall for at least some families who don’t want to return yet to in-person instruction.
Around half of Wake County’s students signed up for the Virtual Academy program that was started this school year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wake County school administrators said Monday they’re planning on bringing back some version of the program this fall because the coronavirus pandemic isn’t just going to disappear.
“The reality is setting in that the pandemic, in one way or another, direct or indirect, even if there’s significant improvement, is likely to impact our structures, our decision-making, our academic programming models, so many areas of how we’re going to do business in ‘21-22,” Drew Cook, assistant superintendent for academics, told a school board committee on Monday.
Wake and other school districts across North Carolina were required by the state to create virtual programs this school year for families leery of returning to in-person instruction.
The majority of Wake students were enrolled in the Virtual Academy in the fall semester. It’s shifted, though, to 52% of students opting for in-person instruction this semester.
According to Wake, 77,322 of the district’s students are in the Virtual Academy for the spring semester. That’s 48% of Wake’s 161,650 students.
The entire school district is in online instruction only through at least mid-February after the school board voted to suspend in-person instruction due to COVID-19 concerns.
Planning for next school year
School administrators could present next week a plan for resuming in-person instruction this school year. But there’s also planning underway for next school year, with Cook reminding the board that students will begin picking courses soon for the fall semester.
“We want to be prepared and ready for all possible contingencies and so obviously for us to be able to accomplish that, the planning and the work has to happen now, even as we’re working in parallel to still making critically important decisions for the current school year,” Cook said. “We simply don’t have the luxury of time to wait as we prepare for the next school year.”
Superintendent Cathy Moore added “that ‘21-22 is still pandemic response for us.”
The district plans to survey principals, teachers, parents and students about changes that could be made to improve the virtual program.
Multiple things are still unknown for this fall, Cook said, including whether the state will require that the virtual option be offered to all students who want it. Cook said that will determine the scope of any program Wake would offer.
It’s uncertain how much demand may still exist in Wake next school year for a virtual option.
“I would still expect there would be some students and families and staff who are particularly medically vulnerable that may need a continued remote setting,” said school board member Christine Kushner. “I hope that is far less than the spring enrollment that we have now.
“I can understand parents and staff and families looking toward the summer as sort of the end to this year of remote need, and I’m hopeful that’s going to be the case.”
Uncertainty with virtual program
The school district had talked for several years about creating a virtual option for students before starting it this school year as an “emergency response” to the pandemic.
Moore and Cook said that it’s premature to talk about how a virtual program would operate after the pandemic ends.
“What we’re doing right now for a pandemic response may align with those folks in our community who may have need or want of an alternative option that is virtual, and it just happens to be coming at a time where because of the pandemic response they have access to it,” Moore said.
“But we’re going to need to understand more and better see what that lifeline looks like after pandemic response.”
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 3:58 PM.
