Students enroll in Virtual Academy (8-10-20)

Students enroll in Virtual Academy (8-10-20)

With just three weeks left until school starts in the st.

Joseph school district... students can expect a completely different learning experience...especially for a full 25% of them-- who have opted to not go to class -- and instead learn online this year..

Kq2's kilee thomas with more for students, teachers and parents year is not going to be like anything they've seen before "people in our society want more choice over their schedules or where or how their kids go to school and this is one of those ways we can continue to provide that choice."

1 in 4 students in st.

Joseph will attending school online this year students or about 25% of students in the st.

Joseph district are enrolled in the virtual academya number district officials say they may have underestimated "at the end of the day, i was surprised to see k-12, the number of parents who exercised the option for whatever reason.

Whether it was covid related or whether it was aligning to a schedule or a personal choice."

Before students first transitioned to online learning in the spring the district was slowly starting to offer more online courses "back in april, we said okay i think this needs to be a k- 12 project, so that all of our students will have access to quality instructure if we are in a closure situation or if they're in a medical condition that prevents them from returning."

Flash forward a few months later to the start of school and covid-19 is still posing a health risk buchanan county sits in the top 10 counties in the state with total number of cases causing many families to see online learning as the best option this fall.

District officials say the virtual academy is leaps and bounds ahead of last spring's online transition "i think our community has something here that they can be proud of.this is an option that's not like the spring when we went to remote learning in the space of a couple of days.

This is something that is thoughtful, that aligns with our curriculum, that includes new learning and new concepts that keeps our students moving forward."

The growing number of students choosing to go online this year meant hiring which also meant needing more space.

The district converting noyes elementary school into a space where online teachers can lean on one another during this unprecedented school year "teachers who are engaged in full time virtual instruction can be together because this is the first time we're doing this and it's important for them to be together, to continue to collaborate and to work through the first process the district has in first time virtual education."

The virtual academy might not be just an option this year something students can opt to do every year.

"online education is something that's been growing in popularity over the course of the last several years and i see that as something that stays with us."

Reporting in st.

Joseph kilee thomas kq2 news according to the american academy of pediatrics...out of the 5 million confirmed covid- 19 cases in the us...339 thousand cases are children... 10,000 of those cases in just the last two weeks of july.

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