Friday March 29th, 2024 5:45AM

Hall students wanting to continue their education online fewer than first thought

GAINESVILLE – When the Hall County Board of Education approved an online program in February for students wanting to continue their education at home during the 2021-2022 school year no one knew for certain how many families would be interested.  It now appears initial estimates were high.

Quite often when an idea is first considered people casually say they will participate, but once the enrollment process begins that number quite often dwindles.  School board members received their first update on the Virtual Program of Choice (VPofC ) enrollment numbers Monday evening at their work session.    

Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Kevin Bales, told board members, “As of this morning when we arrived we had 110 students that were interested and had filled out the application for the Virtual Program of Choice…as of this afternoon that 110 went instantly to 135, and so I think you’re going to see our numbers continue to rise.”

Bales feels confident that the number of enrollees in VPofC will grow because there was some confusion on the new program as Spring Break began earlier this month, but that confusion has now been cleared up.

Bales said many families thought each school would continue to offer its own virtual programs similar to what has existed under COVID-19 restrictions, but that will not be the case under VPofC. Virtual learning for the 2021-2022 school year will originate from a single location and be broadcast system wide.

“Applications opened a week ago, on the 5th…and the deadline is on the 19th, next Monday,” Bales explained.

Hall County School Superintendent Will Schofield interjected, “We very well may want to extend that because there’s a lot of misinformation particularly with our older kids thinking. ‘Oh, I’m just going to keep on doing the Flowery Branch virtual’ and folks don’t realize there isn’t going to be a Flowery Branch virtual.”

Bales said a decision whether or not to extend the deadline will be made in the next day or two

Bales said at present 2800 students in the district are learning online and he is glad to see that number go down even as he is excited about the opportunities Virtual Program of Choice will generate in the coming school year.

Bales said when the program was approved in February it was capped at 700 students, “But it looks like we are going to be well under that.  I think that also communicates the message that we have a lot of families that are ready for their kids to come back in person.”

“We’re working from both side,” Bales explained. “We’re excited about the in-person for next year but we’re also excited about this Virtual Program of Choice.”

“If there is a parent out there with a child that’s in virtual school and they’re interested in virtual school for this next school year, now is the time to take the opportunity to fill out that application to join the Virtual Program of Choice.”

DID SPRING BREAK INCREASE OR DECREASE CORONAVIRUS EXPOSURE?

That was he question posed to Hall County School Superintendent Will Schofield after Monday’s school board work session.  Students have been out of school for nine days; many have traveled and have been around new contacts; could attendance on the first day back from Spring Break be adversely affected?

“We’ve been kind of waiting with baited breath and the jury is out,” Schofield said as he broke into a big smile.  “Today was an all-time low since summer (2020) in the number of cases and quarantines.  I get the numbers every day and today was a daily low.”

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  • Associated Tags: Hall County School District, hall county board of education
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