The Chelsea Public Schools (CPS) is looking to apply for state permission to stage a Virtual School option for next school term, starting in September – as they believe many families might not be ready to fully return when the fall comes around.
Supt. Almi Abeyta said the state is requiring all schools and students to be in-person by next fall, and Chelsea High gave the option to return in-person earlier this month. Still, though, only about 50 percent of the families chose that option, and that means 50 percent of the students are still at home. With that in mind, Abeyta said they will apply for an exception from the state – if the School Committee approves the request as expected at their final meeting of the school term this week.
“We just felt in light of the data – with 50 percent not coming in now – it would be wise to still have a virtual option next year,” she said. “In light of the state saying they wouldn’t allow remote learning to be classified as teaching and learning, they also allowed for applications for exceptions to that. We decided that, after looking at our data, that we would apply. Even if 60 percent of our families still didn’t feel comfortable coming to in-person learning, we still needed to provide an option for those families. We do want to have an option.”
The plan would be to offer it for grades K-12 in the coming term, but then whittle it down to grades 5-12 in coming years.
The first year of Virtual School, she said, would be meant to accommodate any student in any grade who doesn’t feel comfortable coming to the building in September. However, beyond that, the idea would be used for flexibility – to keep kids from dropping out when they have extraordinary circumstances and cannot attend school on the usual hours.
“Some students could use it if they are long-term expulsions or home tutoring,” she said. “To be honest, we found some students thrived in remote learning. We as an individual institution need to increase our flexibility for students. It can be an option for student that has to work, or a student that is pregnant, or a student that has social anxiety. For now, I think Virtual School will be a bridge for us.”
The Virtual School in the long term is a conversation being had at many urban schools, particularly for the new ‘working student.’ Many families had to send their older kids to work to support the family, and for many of them the need hasn’t changed. Some of those students were able to juggle work and remote schooling this past year, but would not be able to attend in-person school during regular hours. Abeyta said they worry those students could be lost to the working world, and might never finish their schooling without Virtual School.
“When we decided to do this I was excited because it accommodates our families during this pandemic, but it also can take care of so many other needs we have too,” she said. “You really need to be flexible when you’re talking to students who have to work full-time. They don’t consider themselves a high school dropout because they have to work to support themselves or their families. It’s just that school hours don’t work for them.”
She said this aspect of Virtual School builds on the Twilight Academy that was being formed in early 2020 just as COVID-19 hit and put that plan on hold.