Student performance in the virtual learning system offered by Fayette County School Corporation is, so far, similar to students in the classrooms.
Assistant School Superintendent Kimberly Corsaro reported on the FCSC My School Online program during Tuesday’s school board meeting. That’s the program developed for students whose families did not want them to return to the classroom this fall because of health and safety worries over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Corsaro and Superintendent Scott Collins complimented school faculty for having the online learning program ready to go on the first day of school, Aug. 12.
On that date, 441 students had enrolled in the online learning. In the month since, online enrollment has shrunk to 395 students, she said. Many of those who left My School Online have returned to classrooms.
Of the online students, about 81 percent “are fulfilling the terms” of the virtual program: they are logging into their classes, doing the assignments and following up with teachers.
Another 19 percent are “somewhere on the continuum” of doing some work to not participating. About 10 percent “are doing no or minimal work.”
Later in the meeting, board member Ann Kirschner, a former teacher, said that even in regular classrooms, a certain number of students do not participate or do the work.
Corsaro continued, saying that principals, teachers and a new position called “school liaison” have been making contact with the non-participating students and their families, trying to find out what’s not working for them and encouraging them to do their schoolwork.
The school corporation created the school liaison position this fall specifically to help deliver the My School Online program. Each school building has a school liaison and there will be a district liaison as well, Corsaro said. At present, she is filling the district liaison role, and has been helping contact non-participating students.
The My School Online program, being new, has presented several challenges to the school staff, she said. Students are required to log in to classroom instruction through their computers. That means teachers not only have their regular classroom but also have to pay attention to the online learners, something they have not dealt with previously.
In resolving issues that have come up, Corsaro said the school administration has tried to listen and accommodate staff suggestions. One challenge has been to provide adequate training for teachers and staff.
She pointed to one side benefit of the online learning component. When a student is sick or out of school because of quarantining, the student can log in and participate in classes.
COVID-19 also creates financial worries
The changes wrought by response to COVID-19 are having other effects on the school system, other administrators reported.
Jane Kellam-Tollett, the corporation business manager, said she has two major worries regarding school finances because of COVID-19.
One is the effect of virtual learning on the amount of state aid that will be paid to the school corporation. The state pays school districts for each student enrolled on a certain date, usually the second Friday after Labor Day. It pays 100 percent for in-classroom students and 85 percent for virtual students.
Because of the loss of students during the past 10 years, Fayette County has lost about $400,000 in state funding, Kellam-Tollett said. If the state sticks with the payment of 85 percent for online students, that would mean an additional $100,000 loss for Fayette County, she said.
However, the Indiana Department of Education is trying to come up with an alternative that might get school districts paid for 100 percent of virtual students in the hope that the state legislature would change the funding formula when it meets next year.
Kellam-Tollett noted that the funding difference was meant to provide aid for students in “virtual-only” schools, such as some of the alternative education models. She noted that Fayette County schools now have a combined model, which still requires buildings and support staff, such as custodians, and therefore needs the 100 percent funding.
She encouraged the public to contact state lawmakers and encourage them to change the funding formula so that schools like Fayette County get the full amount per student, whether in classroom or virtual.
The other funding issue related to COVID-19, she said, may occur by the 2022-23 school year, reflecting tax money being spent by the state in response to the pandemic as well as an expected loss of tax revenues.
The state has spent about $2 billion responding to the COVID-19 emergency, Superintendent Collins said.
If the economy stays as is, with many businesses shut down or at reduced capacity, that will eat into money that normally would go to schools, forcing the state to reduce school funding, Kellam-Tollett said.