Murray County Schools officials commit to virtual academy long-term

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, February 10, 2021

CHATSWORTH — While COVID-19 forced Murray County Schools to offer a fully virtual learning option for students this year, system officials plan to continue operating the Murray Virtual Academy — and even strengthen it — after the pandemic is no longer a concern.

Virtual education “is not as good as face to face — nobody would ever tell you that it is — but there is a pocket out there” of students who want it, and if Murray County Schools doesn’t offer it, “someone else will” fill that niche, Superintendent Steve Loughridge said Thursday during a Murray County Board of Education meeting. That could eventually lead to an exodus of students, and since school systems receive funding based on the number of students, it could leave the system in a dire financial predicament.

“It would not be sustainable to have traditional school as we know it,” Loughridge said. “The prudent thing is to get into this game so we can fight off the competition.”

“We need to get better at it, and we need to commit to it, because it’s like a business,” he said. “If we don’t give customers what they want, somebody else will.”

Virtual learning suits several types of students, said Maria Bradley, principal of North Murray High School. Some have anxiety, which can be exacerbated by crowds, while others need to work during the day, balance high school and college courses, or want to accelerate graduation.

“Some are shy,” and they don’t care about “the high school experience,” Bradley said. “They just want the diploma.”

Others act as caretakers for relatives, or have significant responsibilities for siblings, she said. “We didn’t know how many of those there are until this year.”

For the first semester, virtual students did not have higher failure rates than in-person students, said Gina Linder, Murray County High School’s principal. In the future, though, certain academic benchmarks would need to be set in order to avoid students going virtual who have little or no chance for success.

Under a proposal presented Thursday, students would need to be in “good academic standing,” passing with at least 70% in their classes, to be considered for the virtual academy, and recommendations from teachers and administrators would also be considered, as would scores on standardized tests, said Kelly Rogers, director of elementary and early learning. Should students falter with their grades virtually, they’d need to come to school a couple of days a week until grades improved.

Students in kindergarten through grade five would also need an adult to act as a learning coach, because without one “you cannot thrive in virtual (learning),” Rogers said. “Your (little ones) can’t do this alone.”

Students would also have to adhere to attendance protocols, such as being on their particular campus at least once every two weeks to meet with a teacher, and participate in a face-to-face orientation at the start of the year (if a new applicant), said Spencer Gazaway, director of secondary education. A number of teachers and counselors would be dedicated to virtual students, so students maintain some connection with adults at school, and so that the rest of the faculty and staff don’t have to juggle in-class responsibilities with virtual ones.

The system should be able to maintain — and even grow — the virtual academy without adding staff, Loughridge said. “Overall, we’re not increasing students, so we have enough staff currently.”

All high school virtual students would be considered members of Pleasant Valley Innovative School, the system’s alternative high school, because “it’s easier to manage,” meaning they’d be considered Pleasant Valley graduates, he said. “It’s better to have everybody who is virtual in one high school, (although) I say ‘school’ loosely, because they’re not at a (physical) school.”

Middle and elementary students would continue to be considered enrolled at their particular school even if virtual, he said. Virtual students of all ages would be barred from extracurricular activities, as has been the case this year.

Estimating virtual enrollment is “a very difficult moving target,” but considering the fact that several parents have already expressed intent to enroll their children virtually for 2021-22, the system is planning for a similar number of virtual students as this second semester, when roughly 700 of Murray County Schools’ 7,000 students are virtual, Rogers said. That figure is down from approximately 1,100 students who enrolled in the virtual academy at the start of this school year.

Under the proposal presented Thursday, the system would cap enrollment around that 700 figure for 2021-22, and students would need to commit for a full year, Gazaway said. “The in-and-out is very difficult” on everyone.